No. 3 


lO CElN a. 



f \ C T I O A/ 


lY'TOBtlCATIOM' OF THE BEST CURRENT K.STAffBMD L1TERWURE 


r mvwamr 


Vol. 1, No. 3. April 13, 1882. Annual Subscription, $50.00. 


HAPPY 


BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON 


Entered at the Post Office, N. Y., as second-class matter. 




■ 


ftlunMUMi 


= THE best literary and 

iJfBIOROBS WEEKLY FUBUSHED. 


now HII Women BY THESE PRESENTS, That 

while sundry and almost countless imitations of and substitutes for 
Enoch Morgan’s Sons Sapolio are offered by unscrupulous parties, who 
do not hesitate to represent them as the original article, 

Cbte Unbenture WITNESSETH, That there is but one 
Sapolio, to wit the original article manufactured by the Enoch 
Morgan’s Sons Co. , of New l T ork, unsurpasssed in quality, unexcelled 
in popularity, and widely known 
not only through its own merits, 
but through the many original 
modes which have been adopted 
to introduce it to the attention of 
the public. Imitation is the sin- 
cerest flattery. Cheapness is a 
poor proof of quality. Cheap im- 
itations are doubly doubtful. The 
most critical communities are the 
most liberal purchasers of Sapolio 
which they invariably find to be 
worth the price they pay for it. 

In Witness Whereof, we hereby 
affix a great seal and our cor- 
porate title. 

ENOCH 



FOR MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS 


A Manual of Hygiene for Women and the Household. Illustrated. 

By Mrs. E. G. Cook, M.D. 

1 2mo, extra cloth, $1.50 

This new work has already received strong words of commendation 
from competent judges who have had the opportunity of examining it, 
as the following will show : 

Commonwealth, Boston, Mass . 

“This is a sensible book, written in a clear, plain, yet delicate style ; a book which 
ought to be in the hands of all women and girls old enough to need its counsel. It treats 
of topics on which hinge much of the world’s woe, because of silent suffering, pale 
cheeks and broken constitutions.” 

Enquirer, Philadelphia, Penn. 

“It is a plain sensible talk on subjects usually considered too delicate to be either 
spoken or written about, but here put in a way that cannot offend anybody. It is a book 
that every mother should read and then put in her daughter’s hand.” 

N. T. Times . 

“ A book of sound advice to women.” 


LADIES WANTED to act as Agents, to whom liberal terms 
will be given. Copies sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price, $1.50. 
Address 

L HYGIENIC PUBLISHING CO., 917 Broadway, 
^ New York, or 482 Van Buren Street, 

Milwaukee, Wis. 



If you appreciate a Corset that will neither break down nor roll up 
in wear, 

TRY BALL’S CORSETS. 

If you value health and comfort, 

WEAR BALL’S CORSETS. 

If you desire a Corset that fits the first day you wear it, and needs 
no ‘‘breaking in,” 

BEY BALL’S CORSETS. 

If you desire a Corset that yields with every motion of the body, 
EXAMINE BALE’S CORSETS. 

If you want a perfect fit and support without compression. 


ESE BALL’S CORSETS. 

Owing to their peculiar construction it is impossible to break steels in 
Ball’s Corsets. 

The Elastic Sections in Ball’s Corsets contain no rubber, and are war- 
ranted to out-wear the Corset. 


Every pair sold with the following guarantee : 

“if not perfectly satisfactory in every respect after three 
weeks' trial, the money paid for them will be refunded (by the 
dealer), Soiled or Unsoiled , > 9 


The wonderful popularity of Ball’s Corsets has induced rival manufacturers 
to imitate them. If you want a Corset that will give perfect satisfaction, 
. insist on purchasing one marked, Patented Feb. 22, 1881. 

And see that the name BALL is on the Box. 

For Sale by all Leadiug Bry Goods Bealers. 


INTESTINAL TORPOR AND 
KINDRED EVILS 

Relieved without Drugs. 

The sufferer from Constipation and Pils3 should test the OLUTEN SFP« 
POS1TORIES which cure most cases by increasing the nutrition of this 
parts, tuus inducing desire and strengthening the power of expulsion. 

READ THE EVIDENCE. 

Dr. A. W. Thompson, Northampton, Mass., says : “ I have tested the Glutej® 
Suppositories, and consider them valuable, as, indeed, I expected from the excel? 
lence of their theory.” 

Dr. Wm. Tod Helmuth declares the Gluten Suppositories to be “ the best reia 
edy for constipation which I have ever prescribed.” 

“ As Sancho Panza said of sleep, so say I of your Gluten Suppositories : God 
bless the man who invented them E. L. Ripley, Burlington, Vt. 

** I have been a constipated dyspeptic for many years, and the effect has been t« 
reduce me in flesh, and to render me liable to no little nerve prostration and sleep- 
lessness, especially after preaching or any special mental effort. The use of Gluten 
Suppositories, made by the Health Food Co., 74 Fourth Avenue, New York, has 
relieved tbe constipated habit, and their Gluten and Brain Food have secured for 
me new powers of digestion, and the ability to sleep soundly and think clearly. I 
believe their food-remedies to be worthy of the high praise which they are receiv- 
ing on all sides.”— Rev. John H. Paton, Mich. 

“ I cannot speak too highly of the Health Food Company’s Gluten Suppositories, 
as they have been a perfect God-send to me. I believe them superior to anything 
ever devised for the relief of constipation and hemorrhoids. I have suffered from 
these evils more than twenty years, and have at last found substantial relief 
through the use of the Gluten Suppositories.”— Cyrus Bradbury, Hopedaie, Mass. 

Send for all our HEALTH FOOD LITERATURE. 

HEALTH FOOL COMPANY, 
4th Ave. and 40th St., adjoining Stewart’s, New York, N. Y. 


LOVELL’S library: 


AHEAD OF ALL COMPETITORS. 


The improvements being constantly made in “Lovell’s Library,” have placed if 
In the Front Rank of cheap publications in this country. The publishers propose t* 
•till further improve the series by having 

BETTER PAPER, 

BET X ER PRINTING, 

LARGER TYPE. 

and more attractive cover than any series in the market. 

SEE WHAT IS SAID OH IT: 

The following extract from a letter recently received shows the appre- 
ciation in which the Library is held by those who most constantly 
read it : 

“Mercantile Lire ary, ) 

“Baltimore, August '29, 1833. J 

“Will you kindly send me two copies of your latest list ? I am glad to see that 
you now issue a volume every day. Your Library we find greatly preferab c to t ho 
‘Seaside ’ aud ‘Franklin Square’ Series, and even better than the lihno. form of the 
latter, the page bein \ of better shape, the lines better leaded, and the words better 
spaced. Altogether your series is much more in favor with our subscribers than 
either of its rival. S. C. DONALDSON, Assistant Librarian.’ 

JOHN W. LOYJBLIj CO., Publisher* 

1 4- Sa 1© Yesey S-turoot;., IN"©-vs7 


THE HAPPY BOY 


3 Cale of Bortnegtan peasant tiff 


BY 

BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON 

; / 


■ffRAWSLATBO FROM THB WORWBGIAK BY 


11. R. G. 



NEW YORK: 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

14. and 1 6 Vesey Street. 



BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON’S WORKS 


NO. 


CONTAINED IN LOVELL’S LIBRARY. 


3 The Happy Boy, 


4 Arne, 




486555 

JUL 1 7 1942 


TROW’S 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 


PRICE. 

IOC. 

IOC. 


I 


The Ha ppy Boy. 

PREFATORY NOTE. 

/he tale here presented is tne story of a young peasant bo/, 
to whom the world has always seemed a delightful dream, until 
he is awakened to his position in it by finding obstacles in Ihe 
way of his love for a girl who is above him in birth. The char- 
acters of the hero and heroine are both drawn more distinctly 
than in “ Arne,” the previous work of Bjornson, with which the 
< American public are familiar; though the two books are marked 
t y the same delicate touch, the same subtile insight, and the 
s une simplicity of language. The episode of the schoolmaster’s 
story, too, is told with a tender pathos, which shows the author’s 
profound knowledge of the intricate motives and workings of 
human nature. Everywhere we find sweet pictures, delicious 
representations, of real country life in Norway. 

It is hoped that this little sketch, slight as it may be, will 
serve further to acquaint us with the idyllic thinker already 
introduced by the translations of “ \rne ” and ‘'The Fishet 
Maiden/' 


* 




THE HAPPY BOY. 


CHAPTER I. 



EYVIND was his name ; and he cried when he was 


born. But as soon as he sat up on his mother's 
lap, he laughed ; and when they lighted the candles in 
the evening, he laughed louder than ever, but then began 
to cry, because they would not let him reach them. 
“ That boy will be something wonderful,” said his 
mother. 

A low, barren cliff overhung the house in which he 
was born ; fir and birch looked down on the roof, and 
wild cherry strewed flowers over it. Upon this roof 
there walked about a little goat, which belonged to 
Oeyvind. He was kept there that he might not go 
astray ; and Oeyvind carried leaves and grass up to him. 
One fine day the goat leaped down, and, — away to the 
cliff; he went straight up, and came where he never had 
been before. Oeyvind did not see him when he came 
out after dinner, and thought immediately of the fox. 
He grew hot all over, looked around about, and called, 
“ Killy-killy-killy-goat ! ” 

“ Bay-ay-ay,” said the goat, from the brow of the hill, 
as he cocked his head on one side and looked down. 


19 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


But at the side of the goat there kneeled a little girl. 

“ Is it yours, this goat?” she asked. 

Oeyvind stood with eyes and mouth wide open, thrust 
both hands into the breeches he had on, and asked : 
“ Who are you ?” 

“I am Marit, mother’s little one, father’s fiddle, the 
elf in the house, grand-daughter of Ole Nordistuen of the 
I leide farms, four years old in the autumn, two days after 
the frost nights, I ! ” 

“ Are you really?” he said, and drew a long breath, 
which he had not dared to do so long as she was speaking. 

“ Is it yours, this goat?” asked the girl again. 

“ Ye-es,” he said, and looked up. 

“ I have taken such a fancy to the goat. You will not 
give it to me ? ” 

“ No, that I won’t.” 

She lay kicking her legs, and looking down at him, 
and then she said: “But if I give you a butter-cake for 
the goat, can I have him then?” 

Oeyvind came of poor people, and had eaten butter- 
cake only once in his life, that was when grandpapa 
came there, and any thing like it he had never eaten 
before nor since. He looked up at the girl : “ Let me 
see the butter-cake first,” said he. 

She was not long about it, took out a large cake, which 
she held in her hand : “ Here it is,” she said, and threw 
it down. 

“ Ow, it went to pieces,” said the boy : he gathered up 
every bit with the utmost care ; he could not help tasting 
the very smallest, and that was so good, he had to taste 
another, and before he knew it himself, he had eaten up 
the whole cake. 

“Now the goat is mine,” said the girl. The boy 
stopped with the last bit in his mouth, the girl lay and 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


laughed, and the goat stood by her side, with white breast 
and dark brown hair, looking sideways down. 

“ Could you not wait a little while?” begged the boy 
his heart began to beat. Then the girl laughed still 
more, and got up quickly on her knees. 

“No, the goat is mine,” she said, and threw her arms 
round its neck, loosened one of her garters, and fastened 
it round. Oeyvind looked up. She got up, and began 
pulling at the goat: it would not follow, and twisted its 
neck downwards to where Oeyvind stood. “Bay-ay-ay,” 
it said. But she took hold of its hair with one hand,, 
pulled the string with the other, and said gently, “Come, 
goat, and you shall go into the room and eat out of 
mother’s dish and my apron.” And then she sung, — 

“ Come, boy’s goat, 

Come, mother’s calf, 

Come, mewing cat 
In snow-white shoes. 

Come, yellow ducks, 

Come out of your hiding-place; 

Come, little chickens, 

Who can hardly go; 

Come, my doves 
With soft feathers ; 

See, the grass is wet, 

But the sun does you good ; 

And early, early is it in summer, 

But call for the autumn, and it will come.” 

There stood the boy. 

He had taken care of the goat since the winter before, 
when it was born, and he had never imagined he could 
lose it; but now it was done in a moment, and he a v-»u!d 
never see it again. 

His mother came up humming from the bea r , with 
wooden pans which she had scoured: she saw the bov 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


*4 

sitting with his legs crossed under him on the grass, cry- 
ing, and she went up to him. 

“What arc you crying about ?” 

“ Oh, the goat, the goat ! ” 

“Yes: where is the goat?” asked his mother, looking 
up at the roof. 

“ It will never come back again,” said the boy. 

“ Dear me ! how could that happen? ” 

He would not confess immediately. 

“ Has the fox taken it?” 

“ Ah, if it only were the fox ! ” 

“Are you crazy?” said his mother: “what has be- 
come of the goat ? ” 

“ Oh-h-h — I happened to — to — to sell it for a cake ! ” 

As soon as he had uttered the word, he understood 
what it was to sell the goat for a cake : he had not 
thought of it before. His mother said, — 

“ What do you suppose the little goat thinks of you, 
when you could sell him for a cake?” 

And the boy thought about it, and felt sure that he 
could never again be happy in this world, and not even 
in heaven, he thought afterwards. He felt so sorry, that 
he promised himself never again to do any thing wrong, 
never to cut the thread on the spinning-wheel, nor let the 
goats out, nor go down to the sea alone. He fell asleep 
where he lay, and dreamed about the goat, that it had 
gone to Heaven : our Lord sat there with a great beard 
as in the catechism, and the goat stood eating the leaves 
off a shining tree ; but Oeyvind sat alone on the roof, and 
could not come up. 

Suddenly there came something wet close up to his 
ear, and he started up. “ Bay-ay-ay ! ” it said ; and it 
was the goat, who had come back again. 

“ What ! have you got back ? ” He jum*>e^ up, took 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


‘ J 

it by the two fore-legs, and danced with it as if it were a 
brother: he pulled its beard, and he was just going in to 
his mother with it, when he heard some one behind him, 
and, looking, saw the girl sitting on the greensward by 
his side. Now he understood it all, and let go the goat. 

u Is it you, who have come with it? ” She sat, tearing 
the grass up with her hands, and said, — 

“ They would not let me keep it : grandfather is sitting 
up there, waiting.” 

While the boy stood looking at her, he heard a sharp 
voice from the road above call out, “ Now ! ” 

Then she remembered what she was to do : she rose, 
went over to Oeyvind, put one of her muddy hands into 
his, and, turning her face away, said, — 

“ I beg your pardon ! ” 

But then her courage was all gone : she threw herself 
over the goat, and wept. 

“ I think you had better keep the goat,” said Oeyvind, 
looking the other way. 

4 Come, make haste ! ” said grandpapa, up on the hill ; 
and Marit rose, and walked with reluctant feet upwgrds. 

“You are forgetting your garter,” Oeyvind called after 
her. She turned round, and looked first at the garter 
and then at him. At last she came to a great resolution, 
and said, in a choked voice, — 

“You may keep that.” 

He went over to her, and, taking her hand, said, — 

“ Thank you I ” 

“ Oh, nothing to thank for,” she answered, but drew a 
long sigh, and walked on. 

He sat down on the grass again. The goat walked 
about near him, but he was no longer so pleased with it 
as before. 


CHAPTER II. 


T HE goat was fastened to the wall ; but Oeyvind 
walked about, looking up at the cliff. His mother 
came out, and sat down by his side : he wanted to hear 
stories about what was far away, for now the goat no 
longer satisfied him. So she told him how once every 
thing could talk : the mountain talked to the stream, and 
the stream to the river, the river to the sea, and the sea 
to the sky ; but then he asked if the sky did not talk to 
any one ; and the sky talked to the clouds, the clouds 
to the trees, the trees to the grass, the grass to the flies, 
the flies to the animals, the animals to the children, the 
children to the grown-up people ; and so it went on, 
until it had gone round, and no one could tell where it 
had begun. Oeyvind looked at the mountain, the trees, 
the sky, and had never really seen them before. The cat 
came out at that moment, and lay down on the stone 
before the door in the sunshine. 

“What does the cat say?” asked Oeyvind, pointing 
His mother sang, — 

* At evening softly shines the sun, 

The cat lies lazv on the stone. 

Two small mice. 

Cream thick and nice, 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


17 

Four bits of fish, 

I stole behind a dish, 

And am so lazy and tired, 

Because so well I have fared,” 

says the cat. 

But then came the cock, with all the hens. 44 What 
does the cock say?” asked Oeyvind, clapping his hands 
together. His mother sang, — 

“The mother-hen her wings doth sink, 

The cock stands on one leg to think . 

That gray goose 
Steers high her course; 

But sure am I that never she 
As clever as a cock can be. 

Run in, j r ou hens, keep under the roof to-day, 

For the sun has got leave to stay away,” 

says the cock. 

But the little birds were sitting on the ridgepole, sing- 
ing. 44 What do the birds say ? ” asked Oeyvind, laughing. 

“Dear Lord, how pleasant is life, 

For those who have neither toil nor strife,” 

say the birds. 

And she told him what they all said, down to the ant, 
who crawled in the moss, and the worm who worked in 
the bark. 

That same summer, his mother began to teach him to 
read. He had owned books a long time, and often won- 
dered how it would seem when they also began to talk. 
Now the letters turned into animals, birds, and every thing 
else ; but soon they began to walk together, two and two ; 
a stood and rested under a tree, which was called b; then 
came £, and did the same ; but when three or four came 
together, it seemed as if they were angry with each 
other, for it would not go right. And the farther along 


i8 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


ne came, the more he forgot what they were : he remem- 
bered longest a , which he liked best ; it was a little 
bk zk lamb, and was friends with everybody ; but soon 
he forgot a also : the book had no more stories, nothing 
but lessons. 

One day his mother came in, and said to him, — 

“ To-morrow school begins, and then you are going up 
to the farm with me.” 

Oe)wind had heard that school was a place where 
many boys played together ; and he had no objection. 
Indeed, he was much pleased: he had often been at the 
farm, but never when there was school there ; and now 
he was so anxious to get there, he walked faster than his 
mother up over the hills. As they came up to the neigh- 
boring house, a tremendous buzzing, like that from the 
water-mill at home, met their ears ; and he asked his 
mother what it was. 

“ That is the children reading,” she answered ; and he 
was much pleased, for that was the way he used to read, 
before he knew the letters. When he came in, there sat 
as many children round a table as he had ever seen at 
church ; others were sitting on their luncheon-boxes, 
which were ranged round the walls ; some stood in 
small groups round a large printed card ; the school- 
master, an old gray-haired man, was sitting on a stool 
by the chimney-corner, filling his pipe. They all looked 
up as Oeyvind and his mother entered, and the mill-hum 
ceased as if the water had suddenly been turned off. All 
looked at the new-comers ; the mother bowed to the 
schoolmaster, who returned her greeting. 

“ Here I bring a little boy who wants to learn to 
read,” said his mother. 

“What is the fellow’s name?” said the schoolmaster, 
diving down into his pouch after tobacco. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


l 9 


44 Oeyvind,” said his mother : 44 he knows his letters, 
and can put them together. ,, 

44 Is it possible ! ” said the schoolmaster : 44 come here, 
you Whitehead ! ” 

Oeyvind went over to him : the schoolmaster took him 
on his lap, and raised his cap. 

44 What a nice little boy ! ” said he, and stroked his 
hair. Oeyvind looked up into his eyes, and laughed. 

44 Is it at me you are laughing ?” asked he, with a 
frown. 

44 Yes, it is,” answered Oeyvind, and roared with 
laughter. At that the schoolmaster laughed, Oeyvind’s 
mother laughed : the children understood that they also 
were allowed to laugh, and so they all laughed to- 
gether. 

So Oeyvind became one of the scholars. 

As he was going to find his seat, they all wanted to 
make room for him : he looked round a long time, while 
they whispered and pointed ; he turned round on all 
sides, with his cap in his hand and his book under his 
arm. 

44 Now, what are you going to do?” asked the school- 
master, who was busy with his pipe again. Just as the 
boy is going to turn round to the schoolmaster, he sees 
close beside him, sitting down by the hearthstone on a 
little red-painted tub, Marit, of the many names : she had 
covered her face with both hands, and sat peeping at him 
through her fingers. 

44 1 shall sit here,” said Oeyvind, quickly, taking a tub 
and seating himself at her side. Then she raised a little 
the arm nearest him, and looked at him from under her 
elbow : immediately he also hid his face with both hands, 
and looked at her from under his elbow. So they sat, 
keeping up the sport, until she laughed, then he laughed 


20 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


too ; the children had seen it, and laughed with them ; 
at that, #iere rung out in a fearfully strong voice, which, 
however, grew milder at every pause, — 

44 Silence ! you young scoundrels, you rascals, you lit- 
tle good-for-nothings ! keep still, and be good to me, you 
augar-pigs.” 

That was the schoolmaster, whose custom it was to 
boil up, but calm down again before he had finished. It 
grew quiet immediately in the school, until the water- 
wheels again began to go : every one read aloud from his 
book, the sharpest trebles piped up, the rougher voices 
drummed louder and louder to get the preponderance ; 
here and there one shouted in above the others, and 
Oeyvind had never had such fun in all his life. 

44 Is it always like this here?” whispered he to Marit. 

44 Yes, just like this,” she said. 

Afterwards, they had to go up to the schoolmaster, and 
read ; and then a little boy was called to read, so that 
they were allowed to go and sit down quietly again. 

44 I have got a goat now, too,” said she. 

44 Have you ? ” 

44 Yes ; but it is not so pretty as yours.” 

44 Why don’t you come oftener up on the cliff?” 

44 Grandpapa is afraid I shall fall over.” 

44 But it is not so very high.” 

44 Grandpapa won’t let me, for all that.” 

44 Mother knows so many songs,” said he. 

44 Grandpapa does, too, you can believe.” 

44 Yes ; but he does not know what mother does.” 

44 Grandpapa knows one about a dance. Would you 
like to hear it ? ” 

44 Yes, very much.” 

44 Well, then, you must come farther over here, so that 
the schoolmaster may not hear.” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


21 


He changed his place, and then she recited a little 
piece of a song three or four times over, so that the 
boy learned it, and that was the first he learned at 
school. 

“ Up with you, youngsters ! ” called out the school- 
master : “ this is the first day, so you shall be dismissed 
early ; but first we must say a prayer, and sing.” 

Instantly, all was life^in the school : they jumped down 
from the benches, sprung over the floor, and talked into 
each other’s mouths. 

“ Silence ! you young torments, you little beggars, you 
noisy boys ! be quiet, and walk softly across the floor, 
little children,” said the schoolmaster ; and now they 
walked quietly, and took their places ; after which, the 
schoolmaster went in front of them, and made a short 
prayer. Then they sung: the schoolmaster began in a 
deep bass ; all the children stood with folded hands, and 
joined in. Oeyvind stood farthest down by the door with 
Marit, and looked on : they also folded their hands, but 
they could not sing. 

That was the first day at school 




CHAPTER III, 



jEYVIND grew, and became a clever boy : at school 


he was among the first, and at home he did his 
work well. That was because at home he was fond of 
his mother, and at school of the schoolmaster. Of his 
father he saw little ; for he was either away fishing, or 
else looking after the mill, where half the parish had 
their grain ground. 

^What had the most influence on his mind at this time, 
was the history of the schoolmaster, which his mother 
told him one evening as they sat by the chimney-corner. 
This history grew into his books, lay beneath every word 
the schoolmaster said, and stole round the school-room 
when it was quiet. It inspired him with obedience and 
reverence and almost an easier apprehension of every 
thing that was taught him. 

The history was as follows : — 

Baard was the schoolmaster’s name, and he had had a 
brother who was called Anders. They were very fond 
of each other ; both of them enlisted, lived together in 
garrison, and took part in the war, where they both 
became corporals in the same company. When they 
came home again after the war, every one thought they 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


2 3 


were two fine fellows. Then their father died : he 
had much personal property, which it was difficult to 
divide ; but they said, in order that this should nol 
make any disagreement between them, that they would 
put the goods up at auction, so that each might buy 
vvhat he liked, and they would divide the profits. As 
they had said, so it was done. But their father had 
owned a large gold watch, which was famous far and 
wide ; for that was the only gold watch people there- 
abouts had seen ; and, when it was put up, many rich men 
wanted to get it, until both the brothers began to bid too ; 
then the others left off. Now Baard expected that An- 
ders would let him get the watch, and Anders expected 
the same of Baard ; they bid each in their turn, to try the 
other, and looked over at each other while they were 
bidding. When the watch got up to twenty dollars, 
Baard thought that his brother was not doing rightly, and 
bid on, until it was nearly thirty dollars ; as Anders still 
kept on, Baard thought that Anders did not remember 
how kind he had always been to him, and, besides that, 
he was the elder ; so the watch went up to over thirty 
dollars. Anders kept on. Then Baard put the watch 
up to forty dollars at once, and no longer looked at his 
brother ; it grew very still in the auction-room, no sound 
but the auctioneer quietly naming the price. Anders 
thought, as he stood there, that if Baard could afford to 
give forty dollars, he could too ; and, if Baard grudged 
him the watch, he had better take it. He bid over. 
That, Baard thought, was\he greatest disgrace that had 
ever happened to him : he bid fifty dollars in quite a low 
tone. Many people stood around, and Anders thought 
that his brother could not so insult him in the hearing of 
all : he bid over. Then Baard laughed. 

“A hundred dollars, and my brother’s love into the 


H 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


bargain ! ” said he, and turned and went out of the room. 
A while after some one came out to him, as he was sad- 
dling the horse he had just bought. 

“The watch is yours,” said the man: “Anders gave 
up.” 

At the moment Baard heard that, something like re- 
pentance passed through him : he thought of his brother, 
and not of the watch. The saddle was put on, but he 
stopped with his hand on the horse’s back, uncertain 
whether he should ride off. Then many people came 
out, Anders among them ; and, as soon as he saw his 
brother standing over by the saddled horse, he did not 
imagine what Baard was thinking about at that minute ; 
but he shouted over to him, “Thank you for the watch, 
Baard! You will not see it go, the day your brother 
dogs your heels ! ” 

“Nor the day I ride to the farm again,” answered 
Baard, white in the face, and swung himself into the 
saddle. 

The house where they had lived together with their 
father, neither of them entered again. 

A short time after, Anders married into a workman’s 
family, but did not invite Baard to the wedding ; nor was 
Baard in the church. The first year Anders was married, 
the only cow he owned, was found dead on the north 
side of the house, where it had been tied to graze ; and 
no one could tell of what she died. Several other mis- 
fortunes occurred, and he was fast going down hill ; but 
the worst was, when his barfi, with every thing in it, 
burned down in the middle of the winter ; no one knew 
how the fire had arisen. 

“Some one has done that, who wishes me ill,” said 
Anders, and he wept that night. He became a poof 
man, and lost all desire for work. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


2 5 


The hext evening Baard stood in Anders' room. An- 
ders lay in bed, when he entered, but started up. 

“What do you want here? ,, lie asked, but then stoppec 
and stood staring at his brother. Baard waited a little 
while before he answered. 

“ I want to offer you help, Anders : you are not getting | 
along well." 

“ I am getting along as you meant to have me, Baard I 
Go, or I do not know whether I can govern myself!" 

“You are mistaken, Anders: I repent" — 

“Go, Baard, or God have mercy on us both !" 

Now this is how it had been with Baard. As soon as 
he heard that his brother was suffering, his heart melted ; 
but pride kept him back. He felt a need to go to church ; 
and, when there, he made good resolutions, but he could 
not carry them out. Often he had come so far, that he 
could see Anders’ house ; but one time, some one came 
out of the door, another time there was a stranger there, 
or, again, Anders was standing outside, chopping wood ; 
so there was always something in the way. But one 
Sunday, later in winter, he was again in church, and then 
Anders was there too. Baard saw him : he had grown 
pale and thin ; he wore the same, clothes as of old, when 
they used to be together, but now they were threadbare 
and patched. During the sermon he looked up at the 
clergyman, and Baard thought he looked good and kind, 
and remembered the years of their childhood, and what a 
good boy he used to be. Baard himself went to com- 
munion that day, and he made his God the solemn 
promise, that he would be reconciled to his brother, 
come what would. This resolve went through his soul 
as he drank the wine ; and, when he rose, he was going 
straight over to him to sit down beside him ; but some 
one sat in the way, and his brother did not look up. 


26 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


After church, there was again something in the way , 
there were too many people, his wife was walking by his 
side, and Baard did not know her ; he thought it was 
best to go to his brother’s house, and talk seriously with 
him. When the evening came, he did so. He went 
straight to the door of the cot, and listened, and he heard 
his own name spoken : it was by the wife. 

u He went to communion to-day,” said she: “he cer- 
tainly thought of you.” 

“ No : he did not think of me,” said Anders : “ I know 
him, he only thought of himself.” 

For a long time nothing was said : Baard was wet 
with perspiration as he stood there* although it was a 
cold evening. The wife inside was busy with her kettle, 
which sung on the hearth : a little baby cried at inter- 
nals, and Anders rocked it. Then she said these few 
words : — 

“ I believe you are both thinking of each other, without 
being willing to confess it.” 

“ Let us talk of something else,” answered Anders. 
A little while afterwards he rose, and came towards the 
door. Baard had to hide himself in the wood-shed ; but it 
was just there that Anders came, to get an armful of 
wood. Baard stood in the corner, and saw him distinctly : 
he had taken off his thread-bare Sunday clothes, and had 
on the uniform he had brought home with him from the 
war, like Baard’s, and which they had promised each 
other never to touch, but to leave for a family heirloom. 
Anders’ was now patched and worn out ; his strong, well- 
built frame lay as in a bundle of rags ; and, at the same 
time, Baard heard the gold watch ticking in his own 
pocket. Anders went to where the smaller branches lay ; 
instead of stooping to load himself, he stopped, leaned 
back against the Wood-pile* and looked out at the sky, 


THE HAPPY BOY. 2^ 

which was. clear and glittering with stars. Then he 
drew a sigh, and said, — 

“ Yes — yes — yes, — O Lord, O Lord ! ” 

So long as Baard lived, he heard that ever afterwards. 
He was just about to go up to him, when at the same 
moment his brother coughed, and it seemed so difficult ; 
more was not needed to hold him back. Anders took 
his armful of wood, and swept so close by Baard that the 
branches hit his face, so that it smarted. 

For at least ten minutes he stood still on the same 
spot, and it was doubtful when he would have moved, 
if, after his emotion, he had not been seized with such a 
shivering fit that he shook all over. Then he went out : 
he acknowledged freely to himself that he was too cow- 
ardly to go in ; therefore, he now adopted another plan. 
From a wood-box, which stood in the corner he had just 
left, he took a pine-knot, went up into the barn, shut the 
door after him, and struck a light. When he had lighted 
the pine-knot, he held it up to the nail where Anders 
hung his lantern, when he came early in the morning to 
thresh. Baard took out his gold watch and hung it on 
the nail, put out his light and left; and then he was 
so light of heart that he bounded over the snow like a 
young boy. 

The next day he heard that the barn had burned down 
that same night. Probably sparks had fallen from the 
pine-knot, which lighted him while hanging up the watch. 

This overwhelmed him to such a degree, that he sat 
that day like a sick man, took out his psalm-book, and 
sung so that the people in the house, thought he had gone 
crazy. But when evening came, fie went out: it was 
bright moonshine. He walked to his brother’s farm, dug 
about where the fire had been, and found, sure enough, 
a little melted lump of gold : that was the watch. 


28 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


It was with that in his hand, he went into his brothel 
that evening, begged for peace, and was going to explain 
every thing. But it has been before related how his visit 
terminated. 

A little girl had seen him dig about the spot of the 
fire, some boys going to a dance had seen him, the Sun- 
day evening before, walk down towards the barn, people 
in the house related how strange he appeared on Mon- 
day, and, as every one knew that he and his brother were 
bitter enemies, information was given and an inquiry 
was made. No one could prove any thing against him, 
but suspicion rested on him. Now, less than ever, could 
he make any approaches to his brother. 

Anders had thought of Baard, when the barn burned 
down, but had mentioned his suspicions to no one. And 
when he saw Baard enter his room the next evening, pale 
and distressed, he thought immediately, now he is seized 
with repentance, but for such an awful deed to his brother 
he shall never have forgiveness. Afterwards, he heard 
how people had seen him go down to the barn the same 
evening it burned ; and, although nothing came to light at 
the examination, he firmly believed that Baard was the 
guilty one. They met at the examination, — Baard with 
his good clothes, Anders in his patched ones: Baaid 
looked over to him, and his eyes entreated, so that An- 
ders felt it in the depth of his heart. He does not wish 
me to say any thing, thought Anders, and when he was 
asked if he suspected his brother, he answered loudly 
and distinctly, “No.” 

Anders took to hard drinking from that day, and soon 
began to show the effects of it. But it was still worse 
with Baard, although he did not drink : he was no longer 
to be known as the same man. 

Late one evening, there came a ooor woman into the 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


2 9 


little room which Baard rented, and asked him to follow 
her out a minute. He knew her : it was his brother’s 
wife. Baard understood directly what errand brought 
her, turned pale as a corpse, dressed himself, and fol- 
lowed her without uttering a word. There shone a faint 
light from Anders’ window, it twinkled and disap- 
peared ; and they went in the direction of it, for there 
was no path across the snow. When Baard stood for 
the second time before his brother’s door, he noticed a 
peculiar odor of sickness which made him feel ill. They 
went in. A little child was sitting over in the chim- 
ney-corner, eating coal, and was quite black in the face, 
but looked up, and laughed with its white teeth : it was 
his brother’s child. 

But over in the bed, with all sorts of clothes thrown 
over him, lay Anders, emaciated, with smooth high 
forehead, and looking with hollow eyes at his brother. 
Baard’s knees shook : he sat down at the foot of the 
bed, and burst into violent sobs. The sick man looked 
at him steadfastly and was silent. At length he bade 
his wife go out, but Baard made a sign to her that she 
should remain; and now these two brothers began to 
talk together. They explained every thing from the day 
when they had bid for the watch, up to the one when 
they now met. Baard concluded by taking out the lump 
of gold, which he always carried with him ; and it was 
now made clear between the two brothers, that in all 
these years they had not felt happy a single day. 

Anders did not say much, for he was not strong enough ; 
but Baard remained sitting by his bedside as long as 
Anders was ill. 

“ Now, I am quite well,” said Anders, one morning, 
when he awoke : “ now, brother, we shall live long to- 
gether, and never leave each other, just as in old times.” 


30 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


But that day he died. 

Baard took the wife and child home with him, and 
they fared well from that time. What the brothers had 
talked of together, sprung out through walls and dark- 
ness, and was known to all the people of the district, and 
Baard became the most respected man among them. 
All greeted him as one who had known great sorrow 
and found happiness again, or as one'who had been ab- 
sent a long time. Baard’ s firmness of character increased 
with the friendliness which surrounded him : he became 
a God-fearing man, and wished to find some occupation, 
he said ; and so the old corporal became schoolmaster. 
What he impressed on the children, first and last, was 
charity; and he himself practised it, so that the children 
loved him at once as a playmate and as a father. 

Such was the story of the old schoolmaster. It made 
so deep an impression on Oeyvind’s mind, that it became 
the source both of religion and of wisdom for him. The 
schoolmaster had got to be an almost supernatural being 
for him, although he sat there so sociably and scolded 
away so gently. Not to know every lesson, for him was 
impossible ; and if he got a smile or a stroke on his head 
after he had recited it, he was warm and happy for the 
whole day. 

It always made the deepest impression on the chil- 
dren, when the schoolmaster, before singing, made a 
little speech to them, and, at least once a week, read 
aloud some little verses, which were about loving one’s 
neighbor. When he read the first of these verses, his 
voice trembled, although he had now read it twenty or 
thirty years. 

But when the whole hymn was said, and he had 
paused a moment, he looked at them, and his eyes 
twinkled : 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


V 




44 Up ! you young rascals, and go peaceably home, 
withouc making any noise : go quietly, that I may hear 
only good reports of you, little folks.” 

While they were making the worst possible confusion 
to find their books and dinner-pails, he shouted above the 
noise, — 

“ Come again to-morrow as soon as it is light, or I 
shall come and whip you : come again at the right time, 
girls and boys, and we will be industrious.” 




CHAPTER IV. 


F Oeyvind’s further progress, there is little to relate, 



until a year before confirmation. He read in 
the morning, worked during the day, and played in the 
evening. 

As he had an unusually lively disposition, it was not 
long before the children of the neighborhood gladly re- 
sorted where he was to be found. In front of the farm a 
high hill ran down to the bay, with the cliff on one side, 
and the wood on the other, as has been before described ; 
and during the whole winter it was a coasting ground 
every pleasant evening, and on Sundays, for all the chil- 
dren of the district. Oeyvind was leader on the hill, 
owned two sleds, “The Fast Trotter,” and “The Slow 
Coach ; ” the latter he lent to larger parties, the former 
he steered himself, taking Marit in his lap. 

At that time, the first thing Oeyvind did, on waking, 
was to look out and see if it was thawing, and if he saw 
that the gray mist hung over the bushes on the other side 
of the bay, or he heard the drops dripping from the roof, 
he was as long about dressing, as if there were nothing 
to be done that day. But if he awoke, and particularly 
on a Sunday, and found clear, cold, sparkling weather, 
best clothes, and no work, only catechism or church in 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


33 


the morning, and then the whole afternoon and evening 
free, — heigh ! the boy sprung with one leap out of bed, 
dressed himself as if for a fire, and could hardly eat any 
thing. As soon as it was afternoon, and the first boy 
came on his snow-shoes along the side of the road, swing- 
ing his stick over his head, and shouting so that it re- 
-echoed in the hills round the water, and then another 
after him on his sled, and another, another, — away went 
Oeyvind with the u Fast Trotter,” bounded down the 
long hill, and stopped only among the last comers with 
a long, ringing shout, which stretched along the bay 
from hill to hil and died away in the distance. 

Then he w </ Id look round for Marit ; but if she was 
already there, he did not trouble himself further about 
her. 

It was ono Christmas, when the boy as well as the girl 
m'ght be about sixteen or seventeen years old, and were 
both to be confirmed in the spring. The last day of the 
yeai there was to be a great party at the upper Hekk 
farm, at Marit’s grandparents’, by whom she had beer- 
brought up, and who had been promising her this party 
for three years ; but it was not till the holidays of this year 
that it was brought about. There Oeyvind was invited. 

It was a half-clear, mild evening ; no stars were to be 
seen ; the next day it could not help raining. A sleepy 
kind of wind blew over the snow, which was swept 
away here and there on the white Heide fields ; in other 
spots it had drifted. Along the side of the road, where 
there lay but little snow, there was ice which stretched 
along blue-black between the snow and the bare field, 
and peeped out in patches as far as one could see. 
Along the mountains there had been avalanches ; in their 
track it was dark and bare, but on both sides bright and 
covered with snow, except where the birch-trees were. 

3 


34 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


packed together in black masses. There was no watei 
to be seen, but half-naked marshes and morasses lay 
under the deeply fissured, melancholy-looking mountain. 
The farms lay in thick clusters in the middle of the plain 1 
in the darkness of the winter evening, they looked like 
black lamps, from which light shot over the fields, now 
from one window, now from another ; to judge by the 
lights, it seemed as if they were busy inside. 

Children, grown-up and half-grown-up, were flocking 
together from all directions : the smaller number walked 
along the road ; but they, too, left it when they came near 
the farms ; and there stole along one under the shadow 
of the stable, a couple near the granary ; some ran for a 
long time behind the barn, screaming like foxes, others 
answered far away like cats, one stood behind the wash- 
house, and barked like a cross, old, crack-voiced dog, 
until there became a general hunt. The girls came along 
in great flocks, and had some boys, mostly little boys, with 
them, who gathered around them along the road to seem 
like young men. When such a swarm of girls arrived 
at the farm, and one or t couple of the grown-up boys 
saw them, the girls separated, flew into the passages be- 
tween the buildings, or down in the garden, and had to 
be dragged into the house, one by one. Some were so 
bashful that Marit had to be sent for, and compel them to 
come in. Sometimes, too, there came one who had not 
originally been invited, and whose intention was not at 
all to go in, but only to look on, until it turned out that 
she would just take one little dance. Those whom Marit 
liked much, she invited into a little room where the old 
people themselves were, the old man sitting smoking and 
grandmamma walking about. There they got something 
to drink, and were kindly spoken to. Oeyvind was not 
among them, and that struck him as rather strange. 


THE IIAPPY BO\ • 


35 

The best fiddler of the district cbuld not come so early, 
so until his arrival they had to get along with the old one, 
a workman, who went by the name of Gray Knut. He 
Knew four dances ; viz., two Spring dances, a Hailing, 
and an old, so-called Napoleon waltz ; but little by little 
? e had been obliged to turn the Hailing into Schottisch 
by altering the time, and a Spring dance in the same 
manner had become Polka Mazurka. Now he struck up, 
and the dance began. Oeyvind did not dare to join in 
immediately, for too many grown-up ones were there ; 
but the half grown-up soon banded together, pushed each 
other forward, drank a little strong ale for encouragement, 
and then Oeyvind came forward with them. It grew 
hot in the room : the merriment and ale went to their 
heads. Marit was taken out on the floor more than the 
others that evening, probably because the party was at 
her grandparents', and this caused Oeyvind also often to 
look over at her ; but she was always dancing with 
others. He wished very much to dance with her himself, 
and so he sat through one dance so as to rush over to her 
as soon as it was over ; and this he did ; but a tall, dark- 
complexioned fellow with thick hair threw himself in 
front of him. 

“ Back, youngster ! ” he shouted, pushing Oeyvind, so 
that the latter nearly fell backwards over Marit. Noth- 
ing like this had ever happened to him before, never had 
any one been otherwise than kind to him, never had he 
been called “ Youngster,” when he wished to join in : he 
blushed scarlet, but said nothing, and drew back to where 
the new fiddler, who had just arrived, had sat down, and 
was busy tuning up his fiddle. All was c still among the 
flock : they were waiting to hear the first loud notes of 
“ himself. ” He tried and tuned : it lasted a long time, 
but finally he dashed in with a Spring dance ; the boys 


36 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


shouted and jumped, and couple after couple swung into 
the circle. Oeyvind looked at Marit, as she danced with 
the thick-haired man : she laughed over the man’s shoul- 
der, so that her white teeth glistened ; and Oeyvind was 
conscious of a strange, sharp pain in his breast, for the 
first time in his life. 

He looked longer and longer at her : but, in whatever 
way he looked, it seemed to him as if Marit were quite 
grown up ; it cannot be so, he thought, for she still coasts 
down hill with us. But grown up she was, nevertheless : 
and the thick-haired man pulled her, after the dance was 
over, down on to his lap ; she glided off, still remaining, 
however, sitting by his side. 

Oeyvind lQoked at the man : he wore a fine, blue cloth 
suit, blue checked shirt, and silk cravat ; his face was 
small, with sharp, blue eyes, and laughing, scornful 
mouth. He was handsome. Oeyvind looked more and 
more, — looked at last at himself: he had got new trou- 
sers at Christmas, with which he was much pleased, 
but now he saw it was only gray frieze ; his -jacket was 
of the same material, but old and dark ; his vest of 
checked homespun was also old, and with two metal 
buttons and one black one. He looked around, and 
thought very few were so poorly dressed as he. Marit 
had on a black waist of fine stuff, a silver brooch in 
her neckerchief, and a folded silk kerchief in her hand. 
She wore on the back of her head a little black silk 
cap, which was tied under the chin with broad, striped, 
silk ribbon. She was red and white, laughed, the man 
talked with her and laughed, the music struck up, and 
they were to dance again. A comrade came out, and 
sat down by his side. 

44 Why ! don’t you dance, Oeyvind?” he asked kindly, 

44 Oh, no,” said Oeyvind : “I don’t look like it.” 


THE HAPPY BOY 3J 

44 Don’t look like it?” asked his comrade; but before 
he could continue, Oeyvind said, — 

44 Who is that one in the blue cloth suit, who is dan 
cmg with Marit? ” 

44 That is John Hatlen : the one who has been away 
at an agricultural school a long time, and is going to 
take the farm now.” 

At the same moment, Marit and John sat down. 

44 Who is that boy with light hair, sitting over by 
the fiddler, glowering at me?” asked John. 

At that, Marit laughed, and said, — 

44 That is the laborer’s boy at Pladsen.” 

Oeyvind had indeed always known he was a labor- 
er’s boy ; but before now he had never felt it. It seemed 
to him as though he were shrunk in body, shorter than 
all the others ; in order to hold his head up, he had to 
try and think of all which had hitherto made him happy 
and proud, from the coasting-hill to each encouraging 
word. When he also thought of his father and mother, 
who were now sitting at home, thinking that he was 
happy, it seemed as if he could hardly keep from crying. 
All about him were laughing and joking, the fiddle 
scraped close up to his ear : there was a moment in 
which it seemed as if something black rose up before him ; 
but then he remembered the school with all his com- 
rades, and the schoolmaster, who patted him, and the 
minister, who at the last examination had given him a 
book, and said he was a clever boy ; his father had him- 
self sat by listening to him, and had smiled over to him. 

44 Be good now, Oeyvind,” he thought the school- 
master said, taking him on his lap as when he was little. 
44 Dear me ! it is of so little account, all put together ; 
and in fact all people are kind : it only appears as though 
diey were not. We two will become clever, Oeyvind, 


3 « 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


as clever as John Hatlen ; will get good clothes, and 
dance with Marit in a light room, a hundred people, 
smile and talk together, church and ring together, 
bride and bridegroom, the minister, and I in the choir 
who laugh over to you, and mother in the house, and 
large farm, twenty cows, three horses, and Marit good 
and kind as at school.” 

The dance ceased : Oevvind saw Marit on the bench 
in front of him, and John by her side, with his face close 
up to hers ; he felt the sharp pain again in his breast, 
and it was as if he said to himself, it is really true, I am 
suffering. 

At the same moment, Marit rose, and came straight 
over to where he was sitting. She bent down over him, 
and said, — 

“You shall not sit and stare so jealously at me; you 
might understand people notice it ; take some one now, 
.nd dance.” 

He did not answer, but looked at her, and could not 
keep back the tears which filled his eyes. She had al- 
ready risen to go, when she saw it, and stopped : she 
became suddenly red as fire, turned round and went to 
her place, but there she turned again and sat down 
on another seat. John followed her immediately. 

Oeyvind rose from the bench, went out among the 
people in the court, sat down in a little porch , and 
then, not knowing what he should do there, rose, but 
sat down again, for he might just as well sit there as in 
another place. He did not care about going home, nor 
did he care to go in again : it was quite the same to him. 
He was not capable of reflecting on any thing which had 
passed ; he did not wish to think of it ; nor would he 
think of the future, for there was nothing to which ne 
looked forward. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


39 


But what is it, then, I am thinking of? he asked himself 
half aloud ; and when he heard his own voice, he thought, 
•you can still speak, can you laugh? And he tried it; 
yes, he could laugh ; and so he laughed, loud, still 
louder ; and then he thought, it was too funny that he 
should sit there quite alone and laugh. But Hans, the 
comrade who had sat by his side, came out after 
him. 

“For Heaven’s sake, what are you laughing at?” he 
asked, and stopped in front of the porch. At that, 
Oeyvind was silent. Hans remained standing, as if he 
were waiting to see what would happen next : Oeyvind 
rose, looked carefully around, and then said in a low 
voice, — 

“ Now, I will tell you, Hans, why I have been so 
happy before : it is because I have not really cared for 
any one ; but from the day we care for some one, we are 
no longer happy,” and he burst into tears. 

“Oeyvind! ” was whispered out in the court; “ Oey- 
vind ! ” was repeated again a little louder. It must be 
she, he thought. “ Yes,” he answered, also whispering, 
wiped his eyes quickly, and came forward. A woman 
stole softly over the court-yard. 

“ Are you there? ” she asked. 

“ Yes,” he answered, and stood still. 

“ Who is with you ? ” 

“ It is Hans.” 

“ But Hans would go ? ” 

“ No, no,” begged Oeyvind. 

She came now close up to them, but slowly ; and it 
was Marit. 

“ You went away so soon,” she said to Oeyvind. He 
did not know what he should answer to this ; thereupon, 
she also grew confused, and they were all three silent 


40 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


But Hans stole away little by little. The two remained, 
not looking at each other, nor stirring. Then she said in 
a whisper, — 

“ I have gone the whole evening with some Christmas 
goodies in my pocket for you, Oeyvind ; but I have not 
had any chance to give them to you before.” She pulled 
out a few apples, a slice of a cake from town, and a little 
half-pint bottle, which she thrust over towards him, and 
said he could keep. Oeyvind took them. 

“ Thank you,” said he, and stretched out his hand : 
hers was warm ; he dropped it immediately, as if he had 
burnt himself. 

“You have danced a good deal this evening?” 

“Yes: I have,” she answered; “but you have not 
danced much,” she added. 

“ No : I have not.” 

“ Why not ? ” 

“ Oh ” — 

“ Oeyvind.” 

“What?” 

“ Why did you sit and look so at me?” 

“ Oh, — Mafit I ” 

, “Yes?” 

“ Why didn’t you like to have me look at you?” 

“ There were so many people.” 

“You danced a good deal with John Hatlen this 
evening.” 

“ Oh, yes ! ” 

“ He dances well.” 

“ Do you think so?” 

“ Oh, yes ! I do not know how it is, but this evening 
I cannot bear to have you dance with him, Marit.” He 
turned away : it had cost him an effort to say it. 

“ I do not understand you, Oeyvind.” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


4 1 


“ Nor do I understand it myself : it is so stupid of me. 
Farewell, Marit : I am going now.” He took a step 
without looking round. Then she called after him, — 

“ It is a mistake what you thought you saw, Oey- 
vind.” 

lie stopped. “That you are already a grown-up girl 
is not a mistake.” He did not say what she had expect- 
ed, and so she was silent. But in the mean time she saw 
the light from a pipe directly in front of her : it was her 
grandfather, who had just turned the corner, and was 
passing by. He stopped : — 

“So you are here, are you, Marit?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Whom are you talking to ? ” 

“ Oeyvind.” 

“ Whom, do you say ? ” 

“ Oeyvind Pladsen.” 

“ Oh ! the workman’s boy at Pladsen : come, and follow 
me in directly.” 




CHAPTER V, 


HEN Oeyvind opened his eyes on the following 



morning, it was after a long, refreshing sieep 


and happy dreams. Marit had been lying on the cliff, and 
throwing leaves down on him: he had caught them, 
and thrown them up again ; they went up and down in a 
thousand colors and forms, and the sun shone on the cliff, 
which glittered from summit to base. When he awoke, 
he looked around to find them again : then he remem- 
bered the day before, and the same dull, aching pain in 
his breast came over him. That I shall never get rid of, 
he thought, and felt a languor, as if the whole future had 
nothing to offer him. 

“Now you have slept a long time,” said his mother, 
who was seated by his side, spinning. “Up now, and eat 
your breakfast : your father is already in the forest, cut- 
ting wood.” It was as if this voice helped him : he rose, 
feeling a little more courage. His mother must have 
been thinking of her own dancing days ; for she sat and 
hummed to the noise of the spinning-wheel, while he 
dressed himself and ate his breakfast. This humming 
made him rise from the table and go to the window : the 
same dulness and dissatisfaction came over him, and he 
was obliged to rouse himself, and think of work. The 


THE HAPPY BCTi. 


43 


weather had changed : the air was a little colder, so that 
what yesterday had threatened to fall in rain, fell to-day 
as wet snow. He put on woollen socks, a fur cap, sail- 
or’s jacket and mittens, said farewell, and went off with 
his axe over his shoulder. 

The snow fell slowly in large, wet flakes ; he toiled up 
over the sliding hill, so as to turn into the forest on the 
left : never, winter or summer, had he climbed up the 
hills where they coasted, without thinking of something 
which made him happy, or to which he was looking for- 
ward with pleasure. Now it was a heavy, weary road. 
He slipped in the wet snow ; his knees were stiff, either 
from the party of the day before or from languor : now 
he felt that it was all over with the coastings down hill 
for this year, and, with that, for ever. *It was something 
else he longed for, as he went in among the tree-trunks 
where the snow fell softly. A frightened ptarmigan 
screamed and flew up a few yards off, and every thing 
else stood as if waiting for a word, which never was 
spoken. But what it was he longed for, he did not ex- 
actly know : only it was nothing at home, nor was it any 
thing away from home, neither pleasure nor work : it 
was something far aloft, soaring away like a song. Soon 
this took the form of a certain desire, which was to be 
confirmed in the spring, and on that occasion to be Num- 
ber One. His heart beat as he thought of it ; and before 
he could as yet hear his father’s axe in the trembling 
little trees, this wish throbbed in him with greater inten* 
sity than any thing else had done since he was born. 

His father, as usual, spoke but little to him : they both 
chopped and dragged the wood together into piles. 
Once in a while they chanced to meet each other, and on 
one such occasion Oeyvind muttered listlessly, “ A work- 
man must toil very hard.” 


44 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


“ He like others.” said his father, as he spit in the palm 
of his hand, and took up the axe. 

When the tree was felled, and his father had dragged 
it up to the pile, Oeyvind said : “ If you had a farm of 
your own, you would not have to work so hard.” 

“Oh! then I suppose there would be other things to 
weigh upon us ; ” and he took up the axe with both hands 

His mother now came up with dinner for them, and 
they sat down. His mother was in good spirits: she sat 
humming, and beat her feet in time. “ What shall you do 
when you are grown up, Oeyvind?” she said suddenly. 

“For a workman’s son, there are not many ways 
open,” he answered. > 

“The schoolmaster says you must go to the Semi- 
nary,” said she. 

“ Can one go there free?” asked Oeyvind. 

“The school fund pays,” answered his father, who was 
eating. 

“ Would you like that?” asked his mother. 

“ I would like to learn something, but not to be school- 
master.” 

They were all silent for a while. She hummed again 
and gazed forwards ; but Oeyvind walked away and sat 
down by himself. 

“ W e do not need to borrow of the school fund,” said 
she, when the boy had gone Her husband looked at her. 

“ Poor people like us?” 

“I do not like it, Thore, that you always pretend you 
are poor, when you are not.” 

They both cast a side glance down after the boy, to 
see if he could hear it. Then the father looked sharply 
at his wife. 

“Your talk shows how much sense you have.” 

She laughed 


THE HAPPY BOY. 45 

“ It is just like not thanking God, that things have 
prospered so well for us,” said she, and grew serious. 

“ He can certainly be thanked, without our wearing 
silver buttons,” was the father’s opinion. 

“ Yes, but to let Oeyvind go to the dance, looking as 
he did yesterday, is not thanking Him either.” 

“ Oeyvind is a workman’s son.” 

“ He can be dressed properly for all that, when we can 
afford it.” 

“ Talk about it so that he can hear it himself.” 

“ He does not hear us, or I might be tempted to do 
so,” she said, and looked resolutely at her husband, 
who was gloomy, and laid down his spoon to take a 
pipe. 

“ Such a miserable place as we have ! ” said he. 

“ I must laugh at you, who are always talking about 
the place : why do you never mention the mills?” 

“ Oh ! you and the mills ; I believe you can’t bear to 
hear them go.” 

“ I thank God that I can : might they only go night 
and day 1 ” 

“ Now they have been standing still since before Christ- 
mas.” 

“ But people do not grind in the Christmas holidays.” 

“ They grind when there is water; but since they have 
got a mill at New River, it goes poorly here.” 

“ The schoolmaster did not say so to-day.” 

“ I shall let a more discreet fellow than the schoolmas- 
ter take care of our money.” 

“ Yes : least of all should he say any thing to your own 
wife.” 

Thore made no answer to this : he had just lighted his 
pipe, and now leaned back against a bundle of fagots. 
He turned his eyes away to avoid first his wife’s and then 


4 6 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


his son’s glance ; and fixed them on an old crow’s nest, 
which hung half-overturned from a fir branch. 

Oeyvind sat by himself with the future stretched out 
before him like a long, smooth sheet of ice, across which 
his thoughts flew from one shore to the other. He felt 
that poverty hemmed him in on all sides ; and therefore, 
all his thoughts were bent on the means of breaking his 
way through. It had certainly separated him from Marit 
for ever : he regarded her as half-engaged to John Hatlen ; 
but his whole aim was to outstrip him and her in the 
race of life. Never again to be pushed, as he was yes- 
terday ; and with that view, to keep himself out of 
the way, until, by the help of Almighty God, he had 
become something. This occupied his whole mind, and 
there did not arise within him a single doubt as to 
whether he would succeed. He had a dim idea, that 
study was the means by which he was most likely to suc- 
ceed : to what end that should conduct, he must think of 
later. 

There was coasting in the evening ; the children came 
to the hill, but not Oeyvind. He sat by the chimney- 
corner, and read, and he had not a moment to waste. 
The children waited a long time : at length, several, be- 
coming impatient, came up to the window, laid their 
faces against the pane, and shouted in to him ; but he 
pretended that he did not hear. Others came, and even- 
ing after evening they waited outside in great amaze- 
ment; but he turned his back to them, and read, toiling 
faithfully to keep his attention fixed on his book. After- 
wards, he heard that Marit was not among them. He 
read with an industry which even his father was obliged 
to say went too far. He grew grave ; his face, which had 
been so soft and round, became thinner and sharper ; his 
eyes, harder ; he sung rarely, and never played ; it seemed 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


4 1 


as if he never had enough time. When the temptation 
came over him, it was as if some one whispered, 44 Later, 
later ! ” and always, 44 later.” The children slid, shouted, 
and laughed awhile as before ; but when they could not 
entice him to come out to them, either by their own mer- 
riment in coasting, or by calling to him through the win- 
dow-pane, little by little they stayed away; they found 
other playgrounds, and soon the hill stood deserted. 

But the schoolmaster soon remarked it was not the old 
Oeyvind, who studied because he was told to, and played 
because that was a necessity for him. He often talked 
with him, and sought to win his confidence ; but he 
could not succeed in finding the boy’s heart so easily as 
in former days. He talked also with the parents ; and, 
according to an agreement with them, he came down one 
Sunday evening, late in the winter, and said, after he had 
sat awhile, 44 Come, Oeyvind, let us go out : I should 
like to talk with you.” Oeyvind put on his things, and fol- 
lowed him. They took their way up towards the Heide 
farms. A lively' conversation was kept up, but on noth- 
ing of importance : w^en they had come near the farms, 
the schoolmaster turned off in the direction of one which 
lay in the centre ; and when they had come a little farther 
along, they heard shouting and merriment proceeding 
from the house. 

44 What is going on here?” inquired Oeyvind. 

44 They are having a dance,” said the schoolmaster 
“Shall we not go in?” 

“ No.” 

44 Will you not join in a dance, boy ? ” 

44 No ; not yet.” 

44 Not yet ? When, then ? ” 

He did not answer. 

44 What do you mean by yet f ” 


4 8 


THE HAPPY BOY 


As the boy did not answer, the schoolmaster said, 
“ Come now, no such nonsense.” 

“ No : I’m not going.” 

He was very decided, and at the same time agitated. 

“ That your own schoolmaster should stand here and 
beg you to go and dance ! ” 

There was a long pause. 

“ Is there any one in there, whom you are afraid to 
see ? ” 

“ How can I know who is there.” 

“ But could there be any one?”-: 

Oeyvind was silent. Thereupon, the schoolmaster 
went straight up to him, and laid his hand on his shoul- 
der : “Are you afraid to see Marit?” 

Oeyvind looked down : his breath came heavy and 
short. 

“ Tell me, Oeyvind.” 

Oeyvind was silent. 

“ Perhaps you are ashamed to confess it, because you 
are not confirmed yet ; but tell me without minding that, 
Oeyvind, and you shall never regret it.” 

Oeyvind looked up. but could not get the word out, 
and turned away his eyes 

“ You have not been happy either of late : does she 
like any one else better than you?” 

Oeyvind still kept silence. The schoolmaster felt a 
little hurt, and turned away from him : they went back. 

When they had walked along some distance, the 
schoolmaster stopped for Oeyvind to come up with him. 

“ I suppose you wish very much to be confirmed,” said 

“ Yes.” 

“ Then what do you think of doing?” 

“I should like to enter the Seminary.” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


49 


“And then be schoolmaster ? ” 

“ No.” 

“You think that is not great enough.” 

Oeyvind was silent. Again they walked on for a dis- 
tance. 

“ After you have been at the Seminary, what will you 
do then?” 

“ I have not thought much about that.” 

“ If you had money, of course you would like to buy 
yourself a farm.” 

“ Yes ; but keep the mills.” 

“ Then it is best for you to go to the Agricultural 
School.” 

“Do they learn as much there as at the Seminary?” 

“ Oh, no ! but they learn what is useful to them later.” 

“ Do they get marks there also?’ 

“Why do you ask that?” 

“ I should like to be clever.” 

“That you can certainly be without marks.” 

Again they walked along in silence, until they saw 
Pladsen : a light shone from the house ; the cliff hung 
black over it in the winter evening ; beneath lay the 
smooth glimmering ice, but there was no snow’ on the 
forest which skirted the little bay ; the moon sailed over- 
head, and reflected the forest trees on the ice. 

“ It is beautiful here at Pladsen,” said the schoolmaster. 

Sometimes Oeyvind could look upon it with the same 
eyes as when his mother used to tell him tales, or when 
he used to slide down the hill ; now it was so once more : 
all lay raised and clear before him. 

“Yes : it is beautiful here,” he said, but sighed. 

“Your father has found all he wanted in this place: 
you, too, might have enough in it.” 

The happy aspect of the spot disappeared in an in- 


5 ° 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


stant. The schoolmaster stood, as if he expected an 
answer ; receiving none, he shook his head, and entered 
the house with Oeyvind. He sat with them awhile, but 
was more silent than talkative, at which the others also 
giew silent. When he took leave, both the husband and 
wife followed him outside the door : it seemed as if they 
both expected him to say something. In the mean time 
they stood gazing out into the winter night. 

“ It has become so unusually quiet here,” said the 
mother at length, “ since the children have gone else- 
where to play.” 

“Nor have you any longer any child in the house,” 
said the schoolmaster. 

The mother understood what he meant. 

44 Oeyvind has not been happy of late,” said she. 

“Oh, no! he who is ambitious is not happy;” and 
he looked up with £.n old man’s calm into God’s quiet 
heavens above. 




CHAPTER VL 

H ALF a year after, in the following autumn (Confir 
mation had been postponed until then), the children 
who had been preparing for the ceremony, were sitting 
in the servants’ hall at the parsonage, awaiting their ex- 
amination : among them Oeyvind Pladsen and Marit 
Heidefarms. Marit had just come down from the min- 
ister, who had given her a beautiful book and much 
nommendation : she was laughing and talking with her 
friends on all sides, and cast a glance round among the 
boys. Marit was now a full-grown girl, easy and un- 
constrained in her manners ; and the boys as well as the 
girls knew that the richest fellow in the parish, John Hat- 
len, was courting her ; she might indeed be happy, as 
she sat there. Down by the door stood some girls and 
boys, who had not been accepted : they were crying, 
while Marit and her friends laughed ; amongst them was 
a little boy in his father’s boots and his mother’s Sundaj 
kerchief. 

u Oh dear, oh dear!” sobbed he: “I don’t dare to go 
home again.” 

Those who had not yet been called up, were seized 
with a powerful feeling of sympathy : there was a gen- 
eral silence. Anxiety choked both throat and eyes : they 


52 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


could not see distinctly, nor could they swallow, of which 
there was a constant necessity. 

One sat and reckoned over how much he knew; and, 
although some hours before he had found out that he 
knew every thing, he now ascertained, with the same 
degree of certainty, that he knew nothing, not even how 
to read from the book. 

Another made out a list of bis sins, from as far back as 
he could remember, up to the time he was sitting here ; 
and he did not think it was at all to be wondered at, if 
the Lord allowed him to be set aside. 

A third sat and sought to gather omens from every 
thing about him : if the clock, which was just going to 
strike, did not strike before he got to twenty, then he 
would pass; if the one he heard in the entry turned ovt 
to be the stable-boy Lars, then he would pass ; if the big 
raindrop which was travelling down the window reached 
the bottom of the pane, then he would pass. The last 
and decisive test should be, whether he got the right foot 
twisted round the left ; and this was quite impossible for 
him. 

A fourth felt convinced m his own mind, that if he 
were only questioned about Joseph in Bible history, and 
Baptism in the Catechism, or about Saul, or on the Do- 
mestic Duties, or about Jesus, or on the Commandments, 

or : he still sat enumerating, when he was called 

up. 

A fifth had conceived a particular affection for the Ser- 
mon on the Mount : he had dreamt about the Sermon on 
the Mount ; he was sure he would be questioned on the 
Sermon on the Mount ; and he gabbled over to himself 
the Sermon on the Mount ; he had to go outdoors to 
read over the Sermon on the Mount, when he was calDef 
up to be questioned on the great arid small Prophets 


TIIE HAPPY BOY. 


53 


The sixth thought of the minister, who was such a holy 
man, and knew his father so well : he thought, too, of the 
schoolmaster who had such a kind face, and of God, who 
was full of tender mercy, and had helped many before, 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph ; and then he thought 
how his mother, brothers, and sisters were sitting at 
home praying for him, which certainly must help. 

The seventh sat and renounced all he had thought of 
becoming in this world. Once he had thought of push- 
ing it as far as king, once to general or minister : now 
that time was passed. But, up to the very moment of 
coming here, he had thought of going to sea, and becom- 
ing captain, perhaps pirate, and gaining enormous riches 
in trade : now he gave up, first, the riches, then the pirate, 
then the captain, mate, he stopped at sailor, at the ut- 
most boatswain ; yes, it was even possible that he would 
not go to sea at all, but find some occupation on his 
father’s farm. 

The eighth felt more confident of his case, but still not 
quite certain, for even the cleverest was not certain. He 
thought of the clothes in which he was to be confirmed, 
what they should be used for if he were not accepted ; 
but if he got through, he was going to town to get a cloth 
suit, and come home again, and dance at Christmas, to 
the envy of all the boys, and amazement of all the 
girls. 

The ninth reckoned in another way : he made out a 
little account-book with the Lord, in which he set down 
on one side “ Debit,” He shall let me pass ; and on the 
other side, as “ Credit,” then I will never tell any more 
lies, never slander, go to church regularly, let the girls 
alone, and give up swearing. 

But the tenth thought that if Ole Hansen had been ac- 
cepted last year, it was more than injustice if they did 


54 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


not take him this year, who had always been better a 
school, and was besides of better family. 

By his side sat the eleventh, who was meditating the 
most fearful plans of vengeance in case of being set aside, 
either to burn down the school-house, or to run away 
from the parish, and return as the avenging judge of the 
minister and whole school committee, but magnani- 
mously allow mercy to usurp the place of justice. As a 
beginning, he would get a situation in the house of the 
minister of the neighboring parish, and next year stand 
Number One there, and answer so that the whole parish 
would be astonished. 

But the twelfth sat by himself under the clock, with 
both hands in his pockets, and looked mournfully over 
the assembly. No one here knew what a burden he 
bore, in what a responsibility he stood. At home, there 
was one who knew ; fpr he was engaged. A large, 
long-legged spider crawled across the floor, and ap- 
proached his foot : he generally trod on the disgusting 
insect ; but to-day he lifted his foot tenderly, that it might 
go where it liked in peace. His voice was gentle as a 
prayer, his eyes said constantly that all men were good, 
his hands made a humble movement out of his pockets 
up to his hair, to stroke it down flatter. If he could only 
creep gently through this dangerous needle’s eye, he 
would take care to grow out again on the other side, 
chew tobacco, and announce his engagement. 

Down on a low footstool, with his legs up under him, 
the restless thirteenth was sitting: his small, flashing 
e}~es darted round the room three times in a second ; 
and through his violent, stubborn head whirled in mot- 
ley confusion the thoughts of all the twelve, from the 
mightiest hope to the most crushing doubt, from the 
humblest resolutions to the most destructive plans of ven 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


55 


geance against the whole parish ; and in the mean time 
he had eaten up all the loose flesh on his right thumb, 
and was now occupied with his nails, sending great 
pieces across the floor. 

Oeyvind sat over by the window : he had been up, and 
answered every thing which was asked him ; but the 
minister had not said any thing, nor the schoolmaster 
either. For more than half a year he had thought of 
what they would both say, when they found out how 
hard he had worked ; and now he felt much disappointed 
as well as mortified. There sat Marit, who, for Tar less 
exertion and acquirements, had received both encourage- 
ment and reward : it was just to stand high in her eyes, 
he had worked ; and now she won, smiling, what he had 
toiled to attain with so much self-denial. Her laughter 
and joking burned into his soul ; the freedom with which 
she moved about pained him deeply. He had carefully 
avoided speaking to her since that evening: years should 
pass, he thought ; but the sight of her sitting there, so 
happy and superior, weighed him to the ground, and all 
his proud resolutions drooped like wet leaves. 

He endeavored, however, gradually to shake off these 
feelings. All depended on whether he got Number One 
that day, and this he expected. The schoolmaster gener- 
ally remained a little later with the minister, to arrange 
the children’s marks, and afterwards he came down and 
told them the result : it was not the final decision, but 
only what he and the minister had agreed on for the 
present. The conversation in the room became livelier, 
after every one who was examined had been accepted ; 
hut now the ambitious ones began to divide themselves 
off' from the happy ones. The latter left, as soon as 
they found some one to go with, to communicate their 
success to their parents, or stood waiting for others, who 


56 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


were not yet ready : the former, on the contrary, grew 
more and more quiet, and their eyes were anxiously fixed 
on the door. 

At length, the children had all finished : the last had 
come down, and now the schoolmaster was talking with 
the minister. Oeyvind looked at Marit : she was as 
happy as before, but still remained sitting, waiting either 
for some one else or for her own pleasure, he did not know 
which. How beautiful Marit had grown ! Her dazzling 
complexion was like none he had ever seen before ; hei 
nose was a little turned up ; her mouth, half-smiling. 
Her eyes were half closed, unless she looked directly at 
some one : but then her glance always seemed unexpect- 
edly tender, when it did come, and as if she herself 
would add that she meant nothing by it ; at this moment 
she smiled a little. Her hair was rather dark than light ; 
but it was wavy, and came forwards on both sides, 
which, taken together with her half-shut eyes, gave a 
hidden expression to her face, not easily understood. 
One could not be quite sure whom she was looking for 
when she was sitting among others, nor exactly what she 
was thinking of when she happened to turn round and 
speak to anybody ; for she seemed to take back again 
directly what she gave. Under all that, John Hatlen 
must be hidden, thought Oeyvind, but still kept on look- 
ing at her. 

Now the schoolmaster came. All left their places and 
stormed about him : — 

“ What number have I ? ” — “ And I ? ” — “ And I ? ” 
“I? ” 

“ Hush ! you great, over-grown boys : no disturbance 
here. Be quiet now, and you shall hear, children.” 
He looked slowly round: “ You are number 2,” said he 
to a boy with blue eyes, who was looking beseechingly 


THE HAPPY BOY 


57 


at him ; and the boy danced out of the circle. “ You are 
number 3,” he rapped a red-haired, brisk little fellow, 
who was pulling his coat. u You are number 5 you, 
number 8,” &c. He caught sight of Marit : “ You are 
number 1 of the girls.” She turned scarlet over her face 
and /leek* but tried to smile. “ You, number 12, have 
been lazy, you rogue, and a great mischief-maker. You, 
number 1 1 ; we could not expect to have it better, little 
boy. You, number 13, must study hard, and come to 
the last examination, or it will turn out badly for you ! ” 
Oeyvind could not bear it any longer : number 1 had 
certainly not been mentioned ; but he had been standing 
the whole time, so that the schoolmaster would see him. 

“ Schoolmaster ! ” He did not hear. “ Schoolmas- 
ter ! ” Three times he had to repeat it, before he was 
heard. At last, the schoolmaster looked at him : — 
“Number 9 or 10, don't remember exactly which,” 
said he, and turned round to another. 

“Who is number 1 then?” asked Hans, who was 
Oeyvind's best friend. 

“ It is not you, curly-head,” said the schoolmaster, 
rapping him over the hand with a roll of paper. 

“Who is it, then?” asked several. “Who is it? yes:, 
who is it? ” 

“That he will know who gets the number,” answered 
the schoolmaster, severely : he would not have any more 
questions. “ Go home now quietly, children : be thank- 
ful to God, and rejoice your parents' hearts ! Thank 
your old schoolmaster, too : you would have been nicely 
left in the lurch if it hadn't been for him ! ” 

They thanked him, laughed, and departed merrily ; 
for now, that they were going home to their parents, they 
all felt happy. Only one was left, who could not find 
his books directly ; and who, after he had found them, 
sat down, as if he were going to begin studying again 


53 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


The schoolmaster went over to him : — 

“Now, Oeyvinci, are you not going with the otliera?* 

He did not answer. 

“ Why do you open your books ? ” 

“ I was going to see what I had answered wrong to 
day.” 

“ I do not think you have answered any thing wrong.” 

Then Oeyvind looked at him. Tears filled his eyes : he 
still continued looking at him, while they coursed down 
his cheeks, one by one ; but he did not say a word. The 
schoolmaster sat down in front of him : — 

“Are you not glad that it is all happily over?” 

His lips trembled, but he did not answer. 

“ Your mother and father will be very glad,” said the 
schoolmaster, looking at him. 

Oeyvind struggled awhile to speak. At length, he 
.nquired, in a low voice, hesitating as he spoke : — 

“Is it — because I — am a workman’s son — that 1 
stand number 9 or 10?” 

“ Probably that is the reason,” answered the school- 
master. 

“ Then it does no good foi me to work,” said he, 
drearily; and all his dreams v$ : ?hed away. Suddenly 
he raised his head, lifted his rig at hand, and bringing it 
down on the table with all his might> burst into violent 
sobs. 

The schoolmaster let him lie there and weep as long 
as he would. It lasted a long time ; but the schoolmaster 
waited until the sobs grew more childlike. Then taking 
his head in both hands, he raised it up, and gazed into 
the tear-stained face : — 

“ Do you think it is God who has been with you 
now?” said he, drawing the boy up to him. 

Oeyvind still sobbed, but less violently. The tears 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


59 


flowed more slowly; but he dared neither look at him 
who asked, nor answer. 

“ This, Oeyvind, is a merited recompense. You have 
not studied from affection for your religion or your 
parents: you have studied from vanity.” 

There was silence in the room after every thing the 
schoolmaster said. Oeyvind felt his glance resting on 
him, and he grew milder and humbler under it. 

“ With such anger in your heart, you could not have 
come forward to make a covenant with God : would you, 
Oeyvind ? ” 

“ No,” he stammered, as well as he could. 

“ And if you stood there with vain joy at being num- 
ber i, would you not stand there with a sin?” 

“ Yes,” he whispered ; and his lips trembled. 

“You still love me, Oeyvind?” 

“Yes; ” and he looked up for the first time. 

“ Then I will tell you that it was I who had you put 
down ; for I love you so much, Oeyvind.” 

The other looked at him, winked several times, and 
the tears coursed rapidly down. 

“You are not angry with me for that?” 

“ No : ” he looked up full in his face, and then burst 
out crying. 

“ My dear child, I will stay by you as long as I live. 

He waited for him until he had collected his booics 
and was ready, and said he would accompany him home. 
They walked slowly along: at first, Oeyvind was still 
silent, struggling with himself. 

“ Yes : now we shall think of accomplishing something 
in life,” said the schoolmaster, “ and not running after 
shadows and numbers What do you say to the Semi- 
nary?” 

“Yes: I should like that very much I” 


6o 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


44 You mean the Agricultural School?” 

“Yes” 

44 That is, without doubt, the best for you : that opens 
other prospects besides a schoolmaster's position.” 

“ But how shall I get there ? I feel a strong inclina- 
tion, but I have no means to pay for it.” 

“ Be good and industrious, and we shall find means.” 

Oeyvind felt quite overpowered with gratitude. His 
eyes sparkled : he drew his breath lightly, and felt wafted 
along by that boundless tenderness which springs up 
within us when we meet with unexpected kindness from 
our fellow-men. One imagines for a moment, that his 
whole future will be like wandering in fresh mountain 
air, where one seems rather to be borne along than to 
walk. And yet the burden fell on him again, as they 
came in sight of the house at Pladsen. 

Both his parents were in the room, and had been 
sitting there in quiet expectation, although it was during 
the hours for labor, and at a busy time. The school- 
master entered first : Oeyvind followed. 

44 Now ! ” said his father, laying aside a psalm-book, in 
which he had just been reading a 44 Prayer for a Catechu- 
men.” 

His mother stood by the chimney-corner, not daring to 
say any thing. She laughed, but her hand was unsteady : 
apparently, she was expecting something agreeable, but 
did not wish to betray it. 

44 I only wanted to come to gladden you with the news 
that he answered every question which was put him ; and 
the minister said, after Oeyvind had gone, that he has 
not had a cleverer pupil.” 

44 Oh, really ! ” said his mother, much affected. 

44 Well, that was right,” said his father and cleared hie 
throat uneasily. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


61 


After a long silence, his mother asked, softly, — - 

“What number will he have?” 

“Number 9 or 10,” said the schoolmaster, quietly. 

His mother looked at her husband, — he, first at her, 
then at Oeyvind. 

“ A workman’s son cannot expect more,” said he, in a 
low voice. 

Oeyvind looked at him again. It seemed as if there 
were something rising up in his throat again ; but he 
kept it down by thinking of kind things, one after an- 
other, until he had regained his self-control. 

“ Now I had better go,” said the schoolmaster ; nodded, 
and turned towards the door. 

Both the parents followed him out on to the doorstep. 
Here the schoolmaster took a quid of tobacco, and said, 
smiling, — 

“He will be number 1, all the same; but it is not 
worth while for him to know any thing about it, before 
the day comes.” 

“ No, no,” said his father, nodding assent. 

“No, no,” said his mother, also nodding. Then she 
took the schoolmaster by the hand : “We owe you many 
thanks for all you do for him,” said she. 

“ Yes : we owe you thanks,” said his father. 

“ Oh ! I have thanks enough in myself,” answered the 
schoolmaster ; “ for the fact is, I love him ! ” He nodded 
and went away ; but they stood a long time, gazing after 
him. 




CHAPTER VII. 



jURING the clays they were preparing for the Con 


firmation at Placlsen, they also made ready for his 
journey to the Agricultural School ; for this was to take 
place the day after. Tailor and shoemaker were sitting 
in the house, his mother baking in the kitchen, and his 
father working on a chest. They talked much about 
what he would cost them in the two coming years, 
whether he would be able to come home the first Christ- 
mas, perhaps not the second one either ; and how hard 
it would be to be separated so long. They spoke also 
of the love he ought to bear his parents, who were 
willing to make so many sacrifices for their child’s sake. 
Oeyvind sat like one wdio had been out in the world and 
ried his own fortune, but had been capsized, and was 
now picked up by kind people. 

Such a feeling humility gives, and from that follows 
much more. As the great day drew nigh, he dared call 
himself prepared, and look forwards with a hopeful resig- 
nation. When Mar it’s image would present itself, he 
pushed it carefully aside, but felt a pang, as he did so 
He tried to train himself to this, but. however, never made 
any progress ; on the contrary, he felt each time a 
sharper pang. Therefore, he felt weary the last evening, 


T 1 IE HAPPY BOY. 63 

when, after a long self-examination, he prayed that the 
Lord would not try him in this point. 

The schoolmaster arrived late in the day. They sat 
down together, after they had washed and dressed them- 
selves nicely, as is customary the evening before going to 
communion or morning service. His mother was moved, 
his father silent. The parting was to follow the cere- 
mony on the morrow; and it was uncertain, when they 
would sit down together again. The schoolmaster took 
out the psalm-books, read from them and sung, and then 
made a short prayer, just as the words came into his 
mind. 

These four now sat together until late in the evening, 
each busied with his own thoughts ; then they parted 
with the best wishes for the next day, and that which it 
was to consecrate. Oeyvind was obliged to admit, as he 
went to bed, that he had never felt so happy before. This 
evening he gave it a special interpretation : he understood 
by that, I have never before gone to bed feeling so re- 
signed to God’s will and so happy in it. Mark’s face 
rose up again before him, and the last he was conscious 
of was, that he lay and tempted himself ; not quite 
happy, not quite ; and that he answered, yes, quite ; but 
again, not quite ; yes, quite ; no, not quite. 

When he awoke, he remembered directly what day it 
was, prayed and felt strong, as one does in the morning. 
He had slept in the attic by himself since the summer : 
now he rose, and put on carefully his new, handsome 
clothes; for he had never had such before. There was 
in particular a round, cloth jacket, of which he had to feel 
over and over again, before he grew accustomed to it. 
When he had put on his collar, he hung up a little look- 
ing-glass, and for the fourth time drew on his jacket. 
Now when he saw his own delighted face, with the unu- 


64 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


8ually light hair surrounding it, reflected laughing in tha 
glass, it struck him that it must be vanity again. “Yes, 
but one must be allowed to be clean and well-dressed, 1 ” 
answered he, drawing his face away from the glass, as if 
it were a sin to look in it. — “Yes ; but not quite so fond 
of one’s self as far as that is concerned.” — “ No, certainly 
not : but the Lord must also like to have one pleased at 
looking well.” — “That may be ; but He would certainly 
like it better if you did so without paying so much at- 
tention to it yourself.” — “That is true; but see, that 
comes now from every thing’s being so new.” — “Yes; 
but then you must not allow yourself to become confirmed 
in the habit.” He caught himself carrying on such a 
self-examining conversation, first on one point, then on 
another, so that not a single sin should fall on the day 
and stain it; but at the same time he knew that there 
would be more to come. 

When he came down, his parents sat quite dressed, 
waiting breakfast for him. He went up to them and 
shook hands, thanking them for the clothes, and received 
in return, a “wear them out in good health.” They sat 
down to the table, prayed silently, and ate. His mother 
cleared away the table, and brought in the luncheon-box 
for their journey to church. His father put on his jacket, 
his mother fastened her kerchiefs, they took their psalm- 
books, locked up the house, and set out. As soon as they 
came on the upper road, they met people on the way to 
church, driving and walking ; those to be confirmed 
scattered among them, and here and there, in one of the 
groups, white-haired grandparents who could not refrain 
from coming out this one time more. 

It was an autumn day without sunshine, as when the 
weather is about to change. Clouds gathered and dis- 
persed again, sometime* on</ hea^ y mass turned intc 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


65 


twenty smaller ones, which chased across f.he sky, carry- 
ing orders for storm ; but below, on the earth, it was still 
calm, the foliage hung lifeless, and did not even rustle, 
the air was a little sultry ; people had taken their over- 
coats with them, but did not use them. An unusually 
large crowd had assembled round the church, which 
stood in an open space ; but the Confirmation children 
entered the church directly, to be arranged in their places 
before the service began. Then it was the schoolmaster 
in blue clothes, coat and small clothes, high boots, stiff 
necktie, and the pipe sticking out of his pocket behind, 
came down towards them, nodded and laughed, struck 
one on the shoulder, spoke a couple of words to another 
about answering loud and distinctly, and then came down 
to the poor-box, where Oeyvind stood, answering all his 
friend Hans’ questions regarding his journey. 

“ Good-day, Oeyvind : you look nice to-day .” 

He took him by the collar as if he wished to speak to 
him. 

“ Listen now : I think every thing good of you. Now 
I have talked with the minister : you are to keep your 
place ; go up, you are Number One ; answer distinctly.” 

Oeyvind grew scarlet, and looked up at him amazed : 
the schoolmaster nodded, the boy took a few steps, 
stopped, took a few steps more, stopped ; yes, certainly it 
is so, he has spoken to the minister for me. He grew so 
warm and humble, and saw every thing before him in a 
wonderful splendor, and the boy walked rapidly up to his 
place. 

“You are going to be Number One, after all,” one 
wiispered to him. 

Yes,” answered Oeyvind, softly, but was not quite 
sure if he dared. 

The assignment of places was over, the minister hid 
5 


66 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


come, the bells were ringing, and the people pouring in 
Then Oeyvind saw Marit Ileidefarms standing just in 
front of him : she was also looking at him ; hut they were 
both so awed by the sacredness of the place, that they 
dared not greet each other. He only saw she was daz- 
zlingly beautiful, and had her hair uncovered ; but more 
he did not see. Oeyvind, who for more than half a year 
had been building such great plans about standing oppo- 
site to her, forgot, now that the time had come, both the 
place and her, and that he had ever thought of them. 

After all was over, relations and acquaintances came 
to oder their congratulations ; after that, came his com- 
rades to take leave of him, as they had heard that he 
should leave the next day ; then there came many little 
ones, with whom he had slid down hill, or whom he had 
assisted at school, and who now whimpered a little at 
parting. Last came the schoolmaster, took him and his 
parents silently by the hand, and made a sign to go : he 
wished to accompany them. The four were again to- 
gether, and now it was to be the last evening. On the 
way there were many others who took leave of him, and 
wished him good luck ; but otherwise they had no con- 
versation with each other, until they had sat down to- 
gether at home. 

The schoolmaster tried to keep up their spirits. The 
fact was, now the time had come, they all three dreaded 
two whole years’ separation, as they, up to this time, 
had never been apart for a day ; but no one would 
acknowledge it. The later it grew, the more oppressed 
Oeyvind became : he wished to go out to gain a little 
tranquillity. 

It was dusk now, and a strange whizzing in the air. 
He remained standing on the doorstep, and looked up. 
Then he heard his own name called from the brow of 


T1IE HAPPY BOY. 


the cliff, quite low : there was no deception, for it waa 
repeated twice. He looked up, and distinguished a 
woman’s form crouching between the trees and looking 
down. 

u Who is it?” asked he. 

“ I hear you are going away,” said she, in a low voice 
“ so I had to come and say good-by, as you would not 
come to me.” 

‘‘Goodness! is it you, Marit? I shall come up to 
you.” 

“ No : don’t do that. I have waited so long, and then 
I shall have to wait still longer : no one knows where I 
am, and I must hurry home.” 

“ It was kind of you to come,” said he. 

“ I could not bear to have you go off so, Oeyvind : we 
have known each other since we were children.” 

“ Yes : so we have.” 

“ And now we have not spoken to each other for half 
a year.” 

“ No : we have not.” 

“We separated so strangely, too, that time.” 

“ Yes : I think I must come up to you.” 

“ Oh, no ! do not do that. But tell me r you are not 
angry with me ? ” 

“ Goodness ! how can you think so? ” 

“ Good-by, then, Oeyvind ; and thanks for all we have 
had together.” 

“No: Marit?” 

“ Yes : now I must go ; they will miss me.” 

“Marit! Marit!” 

“ No : I dare not stay away longer, Oeyvind. Fare- 
well ! ” 

“ Farewell ! ” 

Afterwards he walked about as in a dream, and an* 


63 


THE HAPPY HOY. 


swered absently, when they spoke to him. They ascribed 
it to his journey, as seemed most natural ; and this, in 
fact, occupied his whole attention at the moment that the 
schoolmaster took leave in the evening, and put some- 
thing into his hand, which he saw later was a five-dollai 
bill. But when he went to bed, he did not think of his 
journey, but of the words which had come down from 
the cliff, and gone up again. As a child she had not 
permission to come on the cliff, because her grandfather 
was afraid she would fall down. Perhaps she will come 
down for all that. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

T^EAR PARENTS, — We have to study more at 
present than we did ; but I am no longer so much 
behind the others, so that it is not so difficult. And now 
I shall make many alterations on father’s place when I 
come home ; for there is much that is wrong there, and 
it is wonderful that it has gone on as well as it has. 
But I shall set it to rights again, for I have learned a 
great deal already. I wish to go to some place where I 
can do all I now know ; therefore I must look about for 
a high post, when I have finished. 

Here, they ail say that John Iiatlen is not so clever as 
they say at home with us; but he has his own property, 
so it does not concern any one -except himself. 

Many, who come from here, get very high wages; but 
the reason they are paid so well, is, that ours is tlie best 
agricultural school in the country. Some say that one 
in the next district is better ; but that is not true at all. 
Here, there are two words: one is called Theory, and 
the other Practice, and it ;s well to have them both ; 
and one is nothing without the other, but the latter is. 
however, the best. And the first word signifies to know 
the reason and motive in a work ; but the other signifies 


7o 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


to be able to do the work ; as, take, for instance, a swamp 
for there are many who know what they should do with 
a swamp, but do it wrong, nevertheless, because they do 
not know how. But many can do it without understand- 
ing the reason ; and so it may also go wrong, because 
there are many kinds of swamps. But here, at school, 
we learn both words. The superintendent is so clever, 
that there is not one who can be compared to him. At 
the last farmers’ meeting for the whole country he con- 
ducted two inquiries : but the other school superintend- 
ents had only one each ; and it always turned out as he 
had said, when they had well thought it over. But at 
the previous meeting, when he was not there, there was 
only nonsense talked. The superintendent chose the 
lieutenant who teaches surveying, only on account of his 
cleverness. And he is so clever, that they say he was 
the best of all at the lieutenants’ school. 

The schoolmaster asks whether I go to church. Yes, 
certainly I go to church : for now the minister has got a 
vicar, and he preaches so that all in church are very 
much frightened ; and it is a pleasure to hear him. He 
belongs to the new religion, which they have in Chris- 
tiania ; and people think he is too severe, but that is 
good for them. 

At present we are studying much history, which we 
have not done before ; and it is strange to see all which 
has happened in the world, and especially with us: for 
we have always won, — except when we have lost; and 
then we have been much the smaller number. Now we 
have liberty ; and that no other nation has so much of as 
we, except America, but they are not happy there. And 
we ought to love our liberty above every thing. 

Now I will close for this time, for I have written a 
very long letter. The schoolmaster will read it and 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


7 


when he answers for you, you must make him tell m| 
some news about my friends, for that he himself never 
does. 

With much love from your affectionate son, 

O. Thoreskn. 


Dear Parents, — Now I must tell you that there 
has been an examination here ; and I stood remarkably 
well in many things, and very well in writing and sur- 
veying, but only tolerably in composition. That comes 
from my not having read enough, the superintendent 
says : and he has made me a present of some of Ole 
Vig’s books, which are splendid ; for I understand every 
thing in them. The superintendent is very kind to me : 
he tells me so many things. Every thing here is so insig* 
nificant in comparison with what there is abroad. We 
understand almost nothing, but learn all from the Scotch 
and Swiss ; but from the Dutch we learn horticulture. 
Many travel over to these countries. In Sweden, too, 
they are much cleverer than we ; and there the superin- 
tendent himself has been. 

It will soon be a year since I have been here ; and 
I thought I had learned a good deal : but when I heard 
what those who passed the examination knew, and when 
I think that neither do they know any thing, when 
they are together with foreigners, then I grow quite un- 
happy. And then the soil here in Norway is so poor, in 
comparison with what it is abroad, it does not repay us 
in the least for ail we do for it. Furthermore, the people 
will not learn from others , experience ; and, even if they 
would, and the soil were much better, then they have 
not money enough to cultivate it. It is wonderful that 
tilings have gone on even as well as they have. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


7 * 

I am in the first class now, and am to remain there a 
year, before I have finished. But most of my friends 
have left, and I long to come home. It seems as if 1 
stood alone, although it is not so at all ; but it is so 
strange, when one has been away a long time. I thought 
once, I should become so clever here ; but it promises 
but poorly now. 

What shall I occupy myself with, when I leave here? 
First, I shall of course come home: afterwards, I must 
find myself some situation ; but it must not be far away. 

Farewell now, my dear parents. Give my love to 
those who ask after me, and tell them that all is well 
with me ; but that now I long to come home again. 

Your affectionate son, 

Oeyvind Thoresen Pladsen 


Dear Schoolmaster, ~ I hereby ask, whether you 
will deliver the enclosed letter, and not tell any one about 
it. If you will not, then you must burn it. 

Oeyvind Thoresen Pladsen. 


To THE MOST HONORED MARIT KnUDSDATTER NORDISTUEN 
AT THE UpPER-HeIDE FARMS. 

You wil. certainly be much surprised at receiving a 
letter from me ; but that you must not be, for I only wish 
to know how you are. You must send me word as soon 
as possible, and in all points. Concerning myself, I have 
to say, tnat I shall have finished here in a year. 

Most respectfully, 

Oeyvind Pladsen 


THE HAPPY BOY. 73 

To Mr. Oeyvind Pladsen, at the Agricultural School. 

I have duly received your letter from the schoolmaster, 
and I will answer, since you ask me to. But I am afraid 
to, now you are so learned ; and I have a letter-book, but 
that will not suit. So I shall try, and you must take the 
will for the deed ; but you must not show it, for then you 
would not be what I think you to be. You must not 
keep it either, for then some one might easily see it ; but 
you must burn it, and this you must promise me. There 
were so many things I would like to write about, but do 
not exactly dare. We have a good harvest, potatoes are 
at a high price, and here at the Heide farms we have 
enough of them. But the bear has been bad with the 
cattle in summer : he killed two cows for Ole Lower- 
farms, and injured one for our workman, so that they 
were obliged to kill her. I am weaving on a large piece 
it is like Scotch cloth, and it is difficult. And now I wil* 
tell you, that I am still at home, and others would like to 
have it otherwise. Now I have not more to write about, 
so farewell. 

Marit Knudsdatter. 

P.S. — Be sure and burn this letter. 


To Oeyvind Pladsen, Pupil at the Agricultural. 

School. 

I have told you before, Oeyvind, that he who walks 
with God has a good inheritance. But now you shall 
hear my advice, and that is, not to take the world with 
eagerness and tribulation, but to put your trust in God. 
and let not your heart consume itself ; for then you have 
another God besides Him. Thereafter, I must tell you 
that your father and mother are well, but I am suffering 
in my hip ; for now the war breaks out afresh with all 


H 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


I have suffered there. What youth sows, age must reap ; 
and that holds true both of the mind and the body 
which is now smarting and throbbing, and tempting me 
to continual complaints. But old age should not com- 
plain ; for wisdom flows from wounds, and pain teaches 
patience, that man may gather strength for his last jour- 
ney. To-day I have taken up my pen for many reasons ; 
and first and above all, for the sake of Marit, who has be- 
come a God-fearing maiden, but is light of foot as a deer, 
and variable in purpose. For she would like to abide by 
one thing, and is prevented by her nature ; but that I 
have often seen before, and when hearts are made of 
such weak stuff, our Lord is indulgent and long-suffering, 
and allows them not to be tempted beyond their strength, 
lest they be shattered to pieces. For she is very fra- 
gile. I gave her the letter as you desired, and she hid it 
from all save her own heart. And if God will lend his 
sanction to this matter, then I have nothing to object ; fGt* 
she is a pleasure in the eyes of young men, as can easily 
be seen ; and she has full measure of earthly goods, and 
somewhat of the heavenly too, spite of her inconstancy, 
For the fear of God in her mind is like water in a shal- 
low pond ; it is there when it rains, but gone again when 
the sun shines. 

My eyes cannot endure more at present ; for they see 
well at a distance, but pain me and fill with tears, if I 
look at objects more in detail. In conclusion, Oeyvind, 
I will tell you to take God with you in ail you desire and 
undertake. For, as it is written, “ Better is a handful 
with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and 
vexation of spirit” (Eccl. iv. 6). 

Your old Schoolmaster, 

Baard Andersen Opdai* 


THE HAPPY BOY. 75 

TO THE MOST HONORED MlSS MARIT KNUDSDATTER HeIDE 
Farms. 

Thanks for your letter, which I have read and burned, 
as you desired. You write about many things, but noth- 
ing at all of what I wished you to write. Nor do I dare 
to v/iite any thing certain, before I know more about how 
you are in all respects. The schoolmaster’s letter says 
nothing which one can trust to ; but he praises you, and 
then he says you are fickle. That you also were before. 
Now I do not know what to believe, and therefore you 
must write ; for I am in suspense, until you have written. 
At this time I remember best that you came on the cliff 
the last evening, and what you then said. I will not say 
more this time, and so farewell. 

Most respectfully, 

Oeyvind Pladsen. 


To Mr. Oeyvind Thoresen Pladsen. 

The schoolmaster has given me a new letter from you, 
which I have now read. But I do not understand it at 
all, and that probably comes from my not being learned. 
You wish to know how I am in all respects: I am 
healthy and well, and nothing the matter with me. I eat 
heartily, especially when I get porridge. I sleep well at 
night, and sometimes in the day-time too. I have danced 
much this winter ; for there have been many parties here, 
and they have been very merry. I go to church, when 
there is not too much snow ; but it has been deep this 
winter. Now I think you know every thing; and if you 
do not, I do not know vvdiat better you can do than to 
write once more. 


Marit Knudsdatter. 


76 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


TO THE MOST HONORED MlSS MARIT KnUDSDATTER HeIDR 

Farms. 

I have received your letter, but you seem inclined to 
leave me just as wise as I was before. Perhaps, after all, 
this is an answer : I know not. I dare not write any 
thing of what I wish to, for I do not know you. But 
perhaps you do not know me better. 

You must no longer think me the soft cheese you 
squeezed the water out of, when I sat and saw you dance. 
Since that time I have laid on many shelves to dry. Nor 
am I like those long-haired dogs who hang down their 
ears and run away from people, as I used to do : now I 
can stand fire. 

Your letter was sportive enough, but it jested when it 
should not have jested at all ; for you understood me very 
well, and you knew that I did not ask in joke, but be- 
cause of late I cannot think of any thing else but what I 
asked about. I was waiting in great anxiety, and there 
came only nonsense and laughter. 

Farewell, Marit Heidefarms. I shall not look at you 
too much, as I did at that dance. May you both eat 
well and sleep well, and finish your new web ; and, 
above all, be able to shovel away the snow which lies in 
front of the church-door. 

Most respectfully, 

Oeyvind Thoresen Pladsen 


To Oeyvind Thoresen, Pupil at the Agricultural 
School. 

Spite of my advanced years, and the weakness of my 
eyes, as well as the pain in my right hip, I must yield to 
the importunity of youth, which calls on us old folks 
when it has been caught in some snare. It entices us 


THE HAPPY BOY. 77 

and weeps, until it is set free ; but then immediately runs 
away from us again, and will listen to nothing more. 

Now it is Marit, who is cajoling me, with many sweet 
words, to write at the same time as she does ; for she 
comforts herself, that she does not write alone. I have 
read your letter : she thought she had to do with John 
Hatlen, or another fool, and not one Schoolmaster Baard 
had trained ; but now she is in a dilemma. However, 
you have been too severe ; for there are certain women, 
who sport to keep from weeping, and it is the same as 
if they wept. But I like to have you take serious things 
seriously ; for otherwise you could not laugh at what is 
sport. 

Concerning your inclinations, that you are bent on 
each other is now apparent from many things. I have 
often doubted about her, for she is like the course of 
the wind : but now, I know that she has resisted John 
Hatlen, at w T hich her grandfather’s wrath has been 
greatly kindled. She was pleased, when your offer 
came ; and when she joked, it was not from any harm, 
but from joy. She has endured much ; and this she has 
done, to wait for him on whom she had fixed her mind. 
But now you will not take her, but cast her off like a 
naughty child. 

This it was I wdshed to tell you. And this counsel I 
must add, that you should come to an agreement with 
ner ; for you can find enough difficulties to contend with 
without that. I am an old man, who has seen three 
generations : I know folly, and its course. 

Your father and mother send love, and are waiting for 
you to come. But I w r ould not write about this before, 
for fear you should be homesick. You do not know your 
father ; for he is like the tree, which gives no groan until 
it is hewn down: But should ou ever come in need, 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


78 

then you will learn to know him ; and you will be aston- 
ished at the treasures you will find. He has been ham- 
pered and silent in worldly matters ; but your mother has 
relieved his mind from earthly anxiety, and now light 
breaks : : on the gloom. 

Now my eyes grow dim, and my hand will write no 
more. Therefore I commend you to the care of Him 
whose eye is ever on the watch, and whose hand is never 
weary. Baard Andersen Opdal. 


To Oeyvind Pladsen. 

You seem to be angry with me, and I am very sorry. 
For I did not mean it so : I meant it well. I remember 
that often I have not been towards you as I ought, and 
therefore I will write to you now, but you must not show 
it to any one. Once I had every thing as I liked, and 
then I was not kind ; but now no one cares for Die any 
longer, and I am very unhappy. John Hatlen has writ- 
ten some spiteful verses about me, that all the boys 
sing, and I dare not go to any dance. Both the old folks 
know about it, and I hear hard words. I am sitting 
alone writing, and you must not show my letter. 

You have learned a great deal, and could advise me ; 
but now you are far away. I have often been down at 
your parents, and I have talked much with your mother, 
and we have become good friends ; but I dare not say 
any thing, for you wrote so strangely. The schoolmaster 
only laughs at me, and he knows nothing about the spite- 
ful verses ; for no one in the parish dares to sing such 
things to him. Now I am alone, and have no one to 
speak to, I think of the time when we were children, 
and you were so kind to me, and I always sat on your 
sled. But now I wish I were a child acrain. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


19 


I dare not ask you to answer me again, for I have no 
right to. But if you would only answer me once more, 
I would never forget it in you, Oeyvind. 

Marit Knudsdattrr. 
Dear me, burn this letter : I hardly know whether I 
dare send it. 


Dear Marit, — Thank you for your letter: you wrote 
it in a happy moment. Now I will tell you, Marit, that I 
love you so much, that I can hardly stay here any longer ; 
and as true as you love me again, John Hatlen’s spiteful 
verses, and others’ hard words, shall be like leaves which 
grow too thick on the tree. Since I got your letter, I am 
like a new person ; for I am twice as strong as before, and 
I am not afraid of any one in the whole world. When I 
had sent the last letter, I repented it so, that I nearly fell 
ill. And now you shall hear what that led to. The su- 
perintendent took me aside, and asked what was the mat- 
ter with me : he thought I was studying too hard. Then 
he told me, that when my year was out, I might be here 
one more, and quite free : I could help him with one 
thing and another, but he would teach me more. Then 
I thought that work was the only thing for me, and I 
thanked him very much ; and I do not yet repent it, al- 
though I long for you : for the longer I am here, the bet- 
ter right I shall have one day to claim you. How happy 
I am now ! I work like three, and I will never be behind- 
hand in any thing. But you shall have a book which I 
am reading, for there is much in it about love. I read 
in it in the evening, when the others are asleep, and then 
I read your letter over again. Have you thought of 
when we shall meet ? I think so often of that, and you, too, 
shall see how delightful it will be. But I am glad that I 


8o 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


have toiled and written so much, although it was so hard 
before ; for now I can say all I wish to you, and smile 
over it in my heart. 

I shall give you many books to read, so that you can 
see how many trials they have had who loved each other 
truly, and that they have even preferred to die of sorrow, 
rather than forsake each other. And so we, too, shall do, 
and do it with great joy. It will indeed be nearly two 
years before we see each other, and still longer before 
we get each other : but every day which passes, makes 
it one day less ; that is what we shall think while we are 
working. 

My next letter shall be about so many tnings ; but I 
have no more paper this evening, and the others are 
asleep. So I will go to bed and think of you, and that I 
will do until I fall asleep* Your friend, 

Oeyvind Pladskv 




CHAPTER IX. 

O NE Saturday, in midsummer, Thore Pladsen rowed 
across the bay, to fetch his son, who was expected 
home that afternoon from the Agricultural School, where 
he had finished his course. His mother had hired a 
woman to help in cleaning during several days before- 
hand. Every thing was fresh and shining. The little 
bedroom had been put in order a long time ago : a stove 
had been set in ; and there Oeyvind was to be. To-day 
his mother carried in fresh leaves, laid out clean linen, 
made the bed, and every now and then looked out to see 
if any boat were coming across the bay. Inside, there 
were great preparations going on, and always something 
lacking, or flies to chase away ; and in the little bedroom 
it was dusty, always dusty. No boat came as yet. She 
leaned on the window-seat, and looked across the water : 
suddenly she heard a step close by, in the road, and 
turned her head. It was the schoolmaster, who was 
coming slowly down the hill, leaning on a stick ; for his 
hip was weak. His shrewd eyes looked calmly about 
him. He stopped to rest, and nodded to her : — 

“ Not yet come ? ” 

“ No : I am expecting them eveiy moment ” 

“ Good Weather for haymaking to-day ” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


82 


“ But warm for old folks to walk ” 

The schoolmaster looked at her, smiling : — 

“ Have young folks been out to-day? ” 

“Yes; but have gone again.” 

“Yes, yes; of course. I suppose they are to meet 
somewhere this evening ? ” 

“Yes: I suppose so. Thore says they shall not meet 
in his house, before they have the old man’s consent.” 

“ Right, quite right.” 

In a few minutes, the mother called, — 

“ There ! I almost think they are coming.” 

The schoolmaster looked off in the distance : — 

“Yes: it is they.” 

She went away from the window, and he entered the 
house. After he had rested a little, and drunk some- 
thing, they proceeded down to the water, where the boat 
darted towards them with rapid strokes ; for both father 
and son were rowing. The rowers had taken off their 
jackets : the water whitened under their oars, so that the 
boat soon came up to them. Oeyvind turned his head, 
and looked up ; saw them both standing at the landing- 
place, and, resting his oars, shouted, — 

“ Good-day, mother ! good-day, schoolmaster ! ” 

“ What a deep voice he has ! ” said his mother, her 
face sparkling : “ dear, dear, he is just as light as ever,” 
she added. 

The schoolmaster seized the boat as it came to land. 
The father laid down his oars, Oeyvind sprung by him 
and out of the boat, shook hands first with his mother, 
then with the schoolmaster. He laughed again and 
again ; and, quite contrary to the custom of the peasants, 
he immediately began to pour out, in a rapid stream, all 
about the examination, the journey, the superintendent’s 
certificate, and the good offers he had had. He inquired 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


83 

about the prospects for the harvest, and his acquaint- 
ances, all except one : his father was going to bring the 
things up from the boat, but, wishing also to hear, 
thought that they might lie there awhile, and followed 
up after. And so they walked up, Oeyvind laughing 
and talking ; his mother laughing too, for she did not 
know at all what to say. The schoolmaster went slowly 
along by his side, looking at him attentively : his father 
walked respectfully a little farther off. And so they 
came home. He was pleased at all he saw : first that the 
house was painted, then that the mill had been enlarged, 
then that the bad windows were taken out in the sitting- 
room and bedroom, white glass set in instead of green, 
and the window-seat larger. As lie came in, every thirig 
was so wonderfully small, not at all as he remembered 
it, but so cheerful. The clock cackled like a fat hen, the 
carved chairs seemed as if they would speak : he knew 
every dish on the table which was laid ready, the chim- 
ney with its new coat of whitewash smiled welcome ; 
the branches standing along the sides of the wall scat- 
tered their fragrance, the juniper strewed on the floor 
told of the festival. They sat down to the meal ; but 
there was not much eaten, for he chattered away without 
ceasing. Now they all examined him more at their lei- 
sure, discovered differences and likeness, looked at what 
was altogether new about him, down to the blue cloth suit 
he wore. 

Once when he had been telling a long story about one 
of his comrades, and at length concluded, so that there 
was a little pause, his father said, — 

“ I understand hardly a word of what you say, boy : 
you talk so tremendously fast.” 

They all burst out laughing together, and Oeyvind not 
least : he knew very well it was true, but it was not 00s- 


8 4 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


sible for him to speak slower. Every thing new he had 
seen and learned during his long absence had so ex- 
cited his imagination and understanding, and so driven 
him out of old habits, that faculties which had long been 
dormant seemed almost frightened into action, and his 
jrain was constantly at work. They remarked, further- 
more, that he had a habit here and there of taking up 
two or three words, and repeating them over and over 
again in his hurry : it seemed as if he were stumbling over 
them. Sometimes it was ridiculous ; but then he laughed, 
and it was forgotten. The schoolmaster and hi* father 
sat and watched to see whether he had lost any of his 
thoughtfulness ; but it did not appear so. i le remembered 
every thing, and was even the one to remind them to lock 
the boat : he unpacked his clothes immediately, and hung 
them up, showed his books, his watch, every thing new, 
and all was well taken care of his mother said. He was 
exceedingly pleased with his little room : he wished to be 
at home in the beginning, he said, to help with the hay- 
making, and to study. Where he should go afterwards, he 
did not know, but it was quite the same to him. He had 
acquired a quickness and power of thought, which was 
quite refreshing, and a liveliness in the expression of his 
feelings, which does so much good to one who is striving 
the whole year through to repress his own. The school- 
master grew ten years younger. 

“Now we have got so far with him,” said he, radiant, 
and rose to go. 

When the mother had re-entered, after accompanying 
him to the doorstep outside as usual, she signed to Oey- 
vind to come in to the little bedroom. 

“ There will be some one waiting for you at nina 
o’clock,” whispered she. 

“ Where ? ” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


85 


“ Up on the cliff.” 

Oeyvind looked at the clock, and it was near nine. He 
tould not wait inside, but went out, climbed up until he 
had reached the top of the cliff, and looked around. The 
roof of the house lay directly under : the bushes on the 
roof had become large, ail the young trees round where 
he stood had also grown ; and he knew every one of 
them. He looked down the road which ran along the 
cliff and was bordered by the forest on the other side. 
The road looked gray and serious, but the forest was 
enlivened by a great variety of foliage : the trees had at- 
tained their full height. In the little bay lay a boat with 
loose sails : it was laden with planks, and waiting for a 
wind. He looked across the water which had borne 
him away, and brought him home again : it lay calm and 
smooth ; some sea-birds Hew over it, but without scream- 
ing, for it was late. Ilis father came walking up from the 
mill, stopped on the doorstep, looked out as his son had 
done, then went down towards the water to take the boat 
in for the night. His mother came out from the side of 
the house, for she had been in the kitchen ; she looked 
up towards the cliff', as she crossed the threshold to carry 
something to the hens, looked up again, and hummed. 
He sat down to wait : the young trees grew so thick, that 
he could not see far in ; but he listened to the slightest 
sound. For a long time it was only birds that flew up 
and deceived him, soon after a squirrel which leaped in a 
tree near by. But at length there is a rustling furthez 
off': it ceases a moment, then begins again. He rises, 
his heart beats, and the blood rushes to his head, then 
something breaks through the bushes close by him ; but 
it is a large, shaggy dog, which comes, and, seeing him, 
stands there on three legs without moving. It was the 
dog from the Upper Heide farms, and close behind him 


86 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


it rustles again : the dog turns his head ; now Marit 
comes. 

A bush caught her dress : she turned to detach it, and 
so she was standing as he saw her first. She had her 
hair twisted up, and no covering on her head, as girls 
generally go in every-day attire : she wore a coarse plaid 
waist with short sleeves, and nothing else round her neck 
besides a plain linen collar. She had stolen away directly 
from the work in the fields, and had not dared to make 
any change in her dress. Now she looked up stealthily, 
and smiled : her white teeth shone, and her eyes sparkled 
from under the half-closed lids. She stood so a moment, 
peeping ; but then ‘came forwards, growing rosier and ro- 
sier at every step! He went to meet her, and took her 
hand between his two. She looked down on the ground, 
and so they stood. 

“ Thanks for all your letters,” was the first she said ; 
and when she looked up just a little, and laughed, he felt 
that she was the most mischievous little witch he could 
meet in the wood ; but he was fairly caught, and she not 
less so. 

“ How tall you have grown ! ” said she, but meant 
something quite different. She looked at him more and 
more, laughed more and more : he laughed too, but they 
said nothing. The dog had seated himself on the slope, 
and was looking down towards the farm. Thore re- 
marked the dog’s head from the water below, and could 
not for his life understand what it was which peeped 
forth from the cliff above. 

But the two had now dropped each other’s hands, anjl 
begun talking a little. And when he had once begun, 
he soon became so loquacious that she could not help 
laughing at him. 

u Yes : you see, so I am when I am happy, you see ; and 


THE HAPPY BOY. Sj 

when we two had made up, it seemed as if a lock in me 
burst open, — wide open, you see.” 

She laughed. Afterwards she said, — 

“All the letters you sent me I know almost by 
heart.” 

“ And I yours also ! But you always wrote such short 
ones.” 

“ Because you always wanted to have them so long.” 

“And when I wanted to write more about something, 
then you turned it off.” 

“I show to the most advantage when you see my 
heel,” said the witch. 

“ But that is true : you have never told me how you got 
rid of John Hatlen?” 

“ I laughed.” 

“ How?” 

“ Laughed ; do you not know what laughing is? ” 

“ Yes : I can laugh.” 

“ Let us see.” 

“Have you ever heard of such a thing? I must at 
least have something to laugh at.” 

“ That I do not need, when I am happy.” 

“Are you happy now, Marit?” 

“Why, am I laughing now?” 

“ Yes : that you are.” 

He took both her hands in his, and clapped them 
together, while he looked at her. At this, the dog began 
to growl ; then his hair stood up, and he began barking 
straight downwards, growing crosser and crosser, until 
at last he became quite furious. Marit sprang back, 
terrified ; but Oeyvind came forwards, and looked down. 
It was his father it was barking at. He was standing 
directly under the cliff, with both hands in his pockets, 
and looking up at the dog : — 


8S 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


“Are you there, you too? What crazy dog is that 
you have got up there ? ” 

“ It is a dog from the Heide farms,” answered Oeyvind, 
somewhat embarrassed. 

“ How the deuce did it come up there?” . 

But his mother had looked out from the kitchen, fo. 
she had heard the dreadful noise, and understood what it 
was all about ; and she laughed, and said, — 

“ That dog is running about there every day, so there 
is nothing strange in it.” 

“ He is a ferocious one, at all events.” 

“ He will be better, if I stroke him,” thought Oeyvind ; 
and he did so. 

The dog ceased barking, but growled. His father 
went confidingly down, and the two were saved from 
discovery. 

“ That was this time,” said Marit, as they again ap- 
proached each other. 

“ Do you think it will be worse in future ? ” 

“ I know one who will keep a watch on us, — that 1 
do.” 

“ Your grandfather? ” 

“ Exactly.” 

“ But he shall not do any thing to us.” 

“ Not a bit.” 

“ And that you promise ? ” 

“ Yes : that I promise, Oeyvind.” 

“ How beautiful you are, Marit ! ” 

“ So the fox said to the raven, and got the cheese.” 

“ I shall get the cheese too : be sure of that.” 

“ But you will not get it.” 

“ Then I shall take it.” 

She turned her head away, and he did not take it 


THE IIAPPY BOY. 89 

“ I must tell you one tiling, Oeyvind : ” she looked up, 
sideways. 

“Well?” 

“ How ugly you have grown ! ” 

“ You will give the cheese, for all that.” 

“ No : that I will not ; ” she turned awav again. 

“ Now I must go, Oeyvind.” 

“ I shall go with you.” 

“ But not beyond the wood : there grandfather can see 
you.” 

“ No : not beyond the wood. Dear me I are you going 
to run?” 

“We cannot go side by side here.” 

“ But that is not going together ? ” 

“ Catch me, then ! ” 

She ran, he after ; and she was soon caught fast, so 
that he came up with her. 

“Have I now caught you for ever, Marit?” He had 
his hand round her waist. 

“ I think so,” said she, in a low voice, and laughed ; 
but was both flushed and serious. 

No : now it must be, thought he ; and he bent over to 
kiss her: but she bent her head down under his arm, 
laughed, and ran off. However, she stopped at the last 
trees. 

“ When shall we meet again ? ” whispered she. 

“ To-morrow, to-morrow,” whispered he back. 

“ Yes : to-morrow.” 

“ Farewell : ” she ran on. 

“ Marit ! ” and she stopped. “ How strange it was 
that we met first up on the cliff! ” 

“Yes : so it was.” She ran on again. 

He gazed long after her The dog ran on in front, 


90 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


barking; she after, quieting him. He turned, took off 
his cap, and threw it up in the air, caught it, and threw 
it up again. 

“Now I really think I begin to be happy,” said the 
boy, and went singing homewards. 





CHAPTER X. 

O NE afternoon late in the summer, as his mother and 
a girl were engaged in raking together the hay, 
while Oeyvind and his father carried it in, a little bare- 
footed, bareheaded boy came skipping down over the 
hills and across the meadow to Oeyvind, to whom he 
gave a little note. 

“ You run well ! ” said Oeyvind. 

“I am paid for it,” answered the boy. 

On being asked whether he should have an answer, he 
said no, and took the way home again over the cliff; for 
there was some one coming after him up in the road, he 
said. Oeyvind broke open the note with some difficulty, 
for it was first folded together in a narrow strip, then tied 
in a knot, and then sealed ; and in the note there stood, — 

44 Now he is on the marsh, but he moves slowly. Run 
up in the wood, and hide yourself. 

44 YOU KNOW WHOM.” 

44 No, that I won’t,” thought Oeyvind, and looked defi- 
antly up over the hills. Nor was it long, before an old 
man appeared on the top of the hills, rested, walked on a 
little, rested again ; both Thore and his wife stopped to 
look. But Thore soon smiled ; his wife, on the contrary, 
changed color. 


92 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


“Do you know him?” 

“Yes: in this case it is not so easy to make a mis- 
take.” 

Father and son began again to carry hay, but the lat- 
ter managed so that they always went together. The old 
man up on the hill continued approaching nearer, like a 
heavy western storm. He was very tali and rather 
stout : he had lame feet, and went step by step with labo- 
rious gait, leaning on a staff. He soon came so near that 
they could see him distinctly: he stopped, took the cap 
off his head, and wiped away the perspiration with a 
handkerchief. He was quite bald far back : he had a 
round, wrinkled face, small, sparkling, blinking eyes, 
bushy eyebrows, and all his teeth in his mouth. When 
he spoke, it was in a sharp, grating voice, which seemed 
to be hopping over sand and stones ; but here and there 
dwelt with great satisfaction on an “ R,” trilled out sev- 
eral yards long, and then suddenly made a hop several 
notes higher. In his young days he had been known as 
a lively but hasty-tempered man : in his old age, through 
many disappointments, he had become irritable and sus- 
picious. 

Thore and his son made many journeys in and out be- 
fore Ole could reach them : they both understood that it 
was for no good he came, therefore it was all the fun- 
nier that he never got there. They were both obliged to 
keep very serious, and speak in an undertone ; but as this 
never came to an end, it grew laughable. Only half a 
word, spoken to the point, can kindle laughter under such 
circumstances, and all the more, when there is danger 
associated with it. When finally he was only a few rods 
off, which, however, seemed never to grow less, Ocyvind 
said in a low voice, quite dryly, “ He must carry a heavy 
toad, that man ; ” and more was not necessary. 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


93 


44 It seems to me you are not very wise,” whispered hia 
father, although he was laughing himself. 

44 Hem, hem ! ” coughed Ole up on the hill. 

44 He is preparing his throat,” whispered Thore. 

. Oeyvind fell on his knees in front of the hay- stack, 
thrust his head into the hay, and laughed. His father 
also bent down. 

44 Let us go into the barn,” whispered he, took an arm- 
ful of hay, and trotted off. Oeyvind took a little tuft, 
sprang after bent double with laughter, but did not drop 
down until he was inside the barn. His father was a 
serious man ; but when something had once set him off 
laughing, first there was a low chuckling, then followed 
a succession of peals which grew longer and longer, until 
they terminated in one loud roar ; then there came bil- 
low after billow, with a constantly longer gasp between. 
Now he was started : his son lay on the floor, the father 
stood above him, and both laughed till the roof cracked. 
Once in a while they had such laughing fits. 

44 But this comes unseasonably,” said his father. 

At last they did not know how it would end ; for by 
this time the old man must have arrived at the farm. 

44 1 won’t go out,” said the father : 44 1 have nothing to 
do with him.” 

44 Well, then I don’t go either,” answered Oeyvind, 

44 Hem, hem ! ” sounded just outside the barn-wall. 

The father threatened the boy. 

44 Will you go out with yourself?” 

44 Yes : go along first.” 

44 No : will you get along with yourself? ” 

44 Yes : go first.” 

And they brushed each other down, and went out very 
seriously. As they came down to the gate, they saw Ole 
standing with his face towards the kitchen door, as if he 


94 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


were considering : he held his cap in the same hand aa 
his staff, and with his handkerchief he wiped the perspi- 
ration from his bald head, but at the same time pulled 
out the bushy tufts behind his ears and in his neck, so 
that they stuck out like nails. Oeyvind kept belrnd his 
father, which obliged the latter to stand still ; and, to bring 
this to an end, he said with great gravity, — 

“ Are such old folks out walking? ” 

Ole turned round, looked severely at him, and adjusted 
his cap before he answered, — 

“ Yes : it seems so.” 

“ Perhaps you are tired : will you not go in ? ” 

“ Oh ! I can rest here, where I am ; my errand is not a 
long one.” 

Some one opened the kitchen door a little : between it 
and Thore stood old Ole, with his cap-visor down over 
his eyes ; for the cap was too large now, since he had lost 
his hair. To be able to see, he threw his head far back : 
the staff he held in his right hand, and the left he held 
firmly against his side, when he was not gesticulating ; 
but this he never did, more than by stretching his hand 
half-way out, and holding it there still, like a guard for 
his dignity. 

“ Is that your son, standing behind you?” he began, in 
a very brisk voice. 

“ They say so.” 

“ His name is Oeyvind, isn’t it?” 

“ Yes: they call him Oeyvind.” 

“ He has been at one of these agricultural school* 
there down south ? ” 

“ There was something like it : yes.” 

“My gill, — she, — my grand-daughter, — yes, Marit, 
— she has got crazy of late.” 

“ That is bad.” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


95 


44 She will not marry. 0 

44 Won’t she?" 

44 She will have none of all the farmers’ sons who pr<s 
sent themselves.” 

44 Indeed ! ” 

44 But they say that he is at the bottom of it, — he who 
is standing there.” 

44 Do they?” 

44 They say he has turned her tead ? — yes: he, there; 
your son, Oeyvind.” 

44 The deuce you say ! ” 

44 You see, I don’t like to have any me tf e my horses 
when I let them out on the mountains; nor do I like to 
have my daughters taken, when I let them out to dance : 
don’t like it at all.” 

44 No : of course not.” 

44 1 cannot go with them: I am old; I cannot look 
after it.” 

44 No, no ! no, no ! ” 

44 Yes: you see, I will keep order; there the block 
shall stand, and there the axe shall lie, and there the 
knife ; and there they shall sweep, and there they shall 
throw out, not outside the door, but there in the corner, 
exactly there, — yes: and in no other place. So, when I 
say to her, not this one, but that one, then it shall be that 
one, and not this one ! ” 

44 Of course.” 

44 But it is not so : for three years she has said no ; and 
for three years we have not been on good terms. This is 
bad ; and if it is he who is the cause of it, then I w/U 
tell him, so that you hear it, you, who are his father 
that it is of no use for him ; he must give it up.” 

44 Yes — yes.” 

Ole looked a moment at Thore, then he said, — 


96 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


u You answer so short.” 

u No longer than a sausage.” 

At this, Oeyvind had to laugh, although he was in no 
mood for it. But, with courageous persons, fear always 
borders on laughter, and now it passed over to the latter. 

“What are you laughing at?” inquired Ole, shortly 
and sharply. 

“ I ? ” 

“ Are you laughing at me ? ” 

“ May God preserve me from it ! ” but his own answer 
made him laugh. 

This Ole saw, and grew perfectly furious. 

Both Thore and Oeyvind would make amends by 
serious faces, and entreaties to go in ; but it was three 
years’ wrath which sought vent, and therefore it was net 
to be smothered. 

u You need not think to make a fool of me,” he began : 
“ I am on a lawful errand : I am looking out for my 
grand-daughter’s happiness, as I understand it ; and the 
laughter of small whelps does not stand in my way. One 
does not bring up girls to throw them into the first work- 
man’s house which opens the door ; and one does not 
cany on a place forty years, to hand over the whole to 
the first one who makes a fool of the girl. My daughter 
went about making a fool of herself, until she was 
allowed to marry a good-for-nothing ; and he drank them 
both into the grave, and I had to take the child, and pay 
the fiddler ; but, by my soul ! if my grand-daughter goes 
and does the same thing, you will know it ! I tell you, 
that, as sure as I am Ole Nordistuen, of the Heide farms, 
the minister shall publish the banns for the witches up 
in Nordal forest, before he shall give out such names 
from the pulpit as Marit’s and yours, you jackanapes ! 
Are you going to frighten away respectable suitors from 


THE HAPPY BOY, 


97 


the house, I should like to know? Yes : just try to come, 
and you will get such a journey down over the hills, that 
your shoes will follow after like smoke. Ycu giggler ! 
You think, perhaps, I don’t know what you are think- 
ing of, both you and she. Yes : I do ; you think that 
Ole Nordistuen will turn his nose upwards, over in the 
churchyard, and then you will trip forwards to the altar. 
No : now I have lived sixty-six years, and I will prove to 
you, boy, that I will live, so that you will go into a con- 
sumption over it, both of you ! You may take this, too, 
that you may stick to the house like new-fallen snow, 
and yet not see even the soles of her feet : for I am going 
to send her out of the parish ; I am going to send her 
where she will be safe, so you can flutter round here like a 
jay bird, and marry rain and north wind. And now I 
have nothing more to say to you : but you, who are his 
father, know my opinion now ; and if you desire the good 
of this fellow, then you must get him to turn the river 
where it can run, — across my property it is forbidden. 

He turned away with short, quick steps, lifting his 
right foot a little higher than the left, and scolding away 
to himself. 

Perfect seriousness had fallen on those remaining : an 
evil omen had mingled with their jesting and laughter, 
and the house stood a moment empty, as after a fright. 
The mother, who had heard every thing, from the kitch- 
en, looked anxiously at Oeyvind, who was almost in 
tears, and she would not make it harder for him by say 
ing a sk.gle word. When they had all gone in silently, 
the father sat down by the window, and looked out after 
Ole, with much seriousness on his countenance. Oey- 
vind’s eyes hung on the least change of mien, for on his 
first words there depended almost the future of the two 
young people. If Thore added his refusal to Ole’s, it 

7 


?8 


THE HAPPY BOY 


would hardly be possible to offer any opposition. Hig 
thoughts ran on, terrified, from obstacle to obstacle. At 
one moment, he saw only poverty, misunderstanding, and 
a sense of wounded honor ; and every support he would 
seek, glided away in his mind. It increased his anxiety* 
that his mother stood with her hand on the latch of the 
kitchen door, uncertain whether she had strength enough 
to remain inside, and await the issue, and that she at last 
quite lost courage, and stole out. Oeyvind looked steadily 
at the father, who seemed as if he would never take his 
eyes in from the window : nor did the son dare to speak, 
for the other must have time to bring his thoughts to a 
conclusion. But, at this moment, his own soul had 
solved the anxious problem, and manned itself anew : 
u None but God can, however, separate us,” thought he 
to himself, and looked at the father’s wrinkled brow. 
Now there will soon come something. Thore drew a 
long sigh, rose, looked in, and met the son’s glance. He 
stopped, and looked long upon him. 

44 It was my will that you should give her up, for one 
should be reluctant to gain any thing by begging or 
threats. If you will not give over, then you may let me 
know, when some opportunity offers, and perhaps I can 
be of assistance to you.” He went to his work, and the 
son followed. 

But that evening, Oeyvind had his plan ready: he 
would endeavor to become teacher in farming for the 
district, and ask the inspector and the schoolmaster to 
help him. “ If she only holds out, then, with God’s helj\ 

I shall win her by my work.” 

He waited in vain for Marit that evening ; but as he 
walked there, he sung the song he liked best. 



CHAPTER XI. 

I T was in the midst of the noonday re je : at the great 
Heide farms the work-people were asleep. The hay 
they had left, lay scattered over the meadows, and the 
rakes were stuck up in the ground. Below the barn-door 
bridge stood the hay-carts : the harness, which had been 
taken off, lay near by ; and the horses were tethered, and 
grazing at a little distance. With the exception of these, 
and some hens which had strayed off into the fields, there 
was not a living creature to be seen on the whole plain. 

In the mountain above the farms, there was a cleft, and 
there the road led in to the Heide farm pastures, large, 
fertile mountain-plains. Up in the ravine, a man was 
standing looking down over the plain, just as if he were 
expecting some one. Behind him lay a little mountain- 
lake, from which the brook ran down which made the 
cleft in the mountain ; around this lake on both sides 
cattle-paths ran across to the mountain stables which he 
could see far away. The calling in of the cattle reached 
his ears, the bells tinkled among the islands, for the 
cows straggled apart to seek water ; the dogs and cow- 
herds tried to drive them together, but in vain. The 
cows came dashing along with the most curious antics, 
made strange plunges, and ran with a short, wild bellow, 


IOO 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


and with their tails in the air, straight down to the watei 
in which they remained standing; their bells chimed 
across the lake every time they moved their heads. The 
d)gs drank a little, but remained behind on land: the 
cow-herds followed after, and sat down on the warm, slip- 
pery hill. Here they took out the luncheon from their 
boxes, exchanged with each other, boasted about their 
dogs, oxen, and the family they lived with, then un- 
dressed themselves, and sprang into the water by the side 
of the cows. The dogs would not go in, but idled lazily 
around, with hanging heads, hot eyes, and lolling tongues. 
On the slopes around no bird was to be seen, no sound 
heard, except the children’s chatter and the chiming of 
the bells ; the heather stood burnt and arid ; the sun 
heated the sides of the hill so that every thing blistered 
beneath its rays. 

But it was Oeyvind who sat up there in the mid-day 
sun, waiting. He sat in his shirt-sleeves, close by the 
brook which ran out of the lake. No one appeared as yet 
on the Ileide farm plain ; and he began to grow a little 
anxious, when suddenly a large dog bounded heavily out 
of a door in Nordistuen, and after him a girl in white 
sleeves. She tripped across the meadows towards the hill : 
he felt a strong desire to shout down to her, but dared 
not. He looked attentively at the farm-house, to see if 
any one chanced to come out and notice her ; but she was 
shielded from observation, and several times he rose from 
impatience. , 

At last she came toiling along by the side of the brook, 
the dog a little in advance, and snuffing the air, she hold* 
ing on to the small bushes, and walking with more and 
more exhausted gait. Oeyvind leaped downwards : the 
dog growled and was hushed ; but as soon as’Marit saw 
him coming, she sat down on a large stone, red as blood, 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


no: 

tired and overcome by the heat. He threw Mmseif 
down on the stone by her side. 

“Thank you for coming.” 

AY hat a heat, and what a long way ! Have you been 
waiting loner ? ” 

u No : since they watch us in the evening, we have to 
employ the morning. But hereafter I think we will not 
pioceed so secretly, and give ourselves so much trouble: 
it was just about that I wished to speak to you.” 

“ Not secretly ? ” 

1 know vei T well that every thing which is carried 
on secretly, pleases you most ; but it pleases you also to 
show courage. To-day I have much to say to you, and 
now you must listen.” 

Is it tine that you are trying to be agricultural 
teacher for the district?” 

u \ es ; and I think I shall succeed. In this I have a 
twofold intention : first, to win myself a position ; but, sec- 
ond!)', and more especially, to accomplish something 
which your grandfather can see and appreciate. It hap- 
pens fortunately that the majority of the tenants on the 
Heine farms are young people who wish for improve- 
ments and demand help: money they have too. So I 
shall begin there: I shall alter every thing, from their 
stables to their waterpipes; I shall give lectures and 
work ; I shall in short, so to speak, besiege the old man 
with good works.” 

“That is bravely said : what more, Oeyvind?” 

44 Yes : the rest will concern us two. You must not 
leave home.” 

44 But if he orders it?” 

44 And keep nothing secret which concerns us two.” 

44 But if he torments me?” 

44 But we stand higher, and defend ourselves better, by 


I ©2 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


allowing every thing to be known. We should he as 
musk as possible before persons’ eyes, just that they may 
be obliged to talk of how much we love each other ; so 
much the sooner will they wish that all may go well with 
us. You must not go away. There is danger for those 
,\ ho are separated, that idle talk may break in between 
them. We do not believe any thing the first year, but 
we begin to believe a little the second. We two will 
meet once a week, and laugh away all the harm they try 
to set between us : we will perhaps meet at a party, and 
dance together until the floor shakes, while those wht 
slander us are sitting around. We will meet at church, 
and nod to each other. If any one writes a song about 
us, then we will sit down together, and try to concoct one 
in answer: it must go well, when we help each other. 
None can reach us, when we keep together, and when 
we also show people that we keep together. All un- 
happy love belongs either to timid or weak or sick peo- 
ple, or calculating people, who go waiting for a certain 
opportunity, or cunning people, who Anally smart for their 
own cunning, or vain people, who do not care enough 
for each other to forget position and difference, — they 
go and hide themselves, send letters, tremble at a word, 
and fear ; that constant uneasiness and irritation in the 
blood, they at last take for love, feel that they are un- 
happy, and dissolve like sugar. A fig for such : if they 
only really loved each other, they would not be afraid ; 
then they would laugh ; they would go openly straight 
up to the church-door before the smiles and remarks of 
all. I have read about it in books, and I have also seen 
it myself: that love is not worth much which seeks con- 
cealment. It must begin in secrecy, because it begins in 
bashfulness ; but it must live in openness, because it lives 
in joy. It is as in the change of foliage ; that which is to 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


I°3 


giow cannot hide itself. At all events, you see that every 
tiling' dry on the trees falls ofl the moment the new leaves 
begin to shoot. He who feels love casts off all the old, 
dead trash he clung to before; the sap wells up and 
streams out; and should no one notice it then? Huzza, 
my girl ! they shall be happy at seeing us happy ; two be- 
trothed who remain faithful to each other, and confeiring 
a benefit on others, for we give them a poem which their 
children learn by heart to the shame of their unbeliev- 
ing parents. I have read of many such ; there also live 
some in the memory of people here in the parish, and 
those who now relate the story, and are moved by it, are 
*he children of the very ones who once caused all the 
harm. Yes, Marit : now we two will give each other 
our hands, so ; yes, and now we will promise each other 
to keep together, so; yes, and then it will be all right; 
Hurra ! ” 

He was going to clasp her head, but she turned it 
away, and glided down off the stone. 

He remained sitting : she came back, and, with hei 
arms on his knee, stood talking and looking up to 
him. 

“ Listen to me, Oeyvind ; but, if he now decides that I 
shall go away, what then ? ” 

“ Then you shall say no, straight out.” 

“ Oh dear ! how will that do ? ” 

“ But he cannot carry you out into the carriage.” 

“If he does not do just that, he can force me in many 
other ways.” 

“ That I do not believe : you owe obedience, it is true, 
as long as it is not sin ; but it is also your duty to let him 
know to the full extent how difficult it is for you to be 
obedient this time. I am sure he will think better of you 
when he sees it : now he thinks, like most other persons, 


ic>4 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


that it is only childish nonsense. Show him it is some- 
thing more.” 

“You may believe, he is not easy to get along with. 
He watches me like a tied goat.” 

“ But you wear away the string several times a day.” 

“ That is not true.” 

“ Yes : every time you secretly think of me, you wear it 
away.” 

“ Yes, in that way. But are you then sure that I think 
of you so often.” 

“ Otherwise you would not be sitting here.” 

“ Why, you sent a message for me to come.” 

“ But you came because your thoughts impelled you.* 

“ Rather because the weather was so fine.” 

“ You just said it was too warm.” 

“ To go up hill, yes ; .but down again?” 

“Why did you come up then?’ 

“So as to run down again.” 

“ Why have you not already gone ? ” 

“ Because I needed to rest.” 

“ And talk with me about love.” 

“ I could easily give you the pleasure of listening.” 

“While the birds were singing” — 

“And the others sleeping” — 

“And the bells ringing” — 

“ In the green grove.” 

Here they both saw Marit’s grandfather come saunter- 
ing out into the yard, and go over to the bell-rope to ring 
the people up. The work-people came slowly from the 
barns and outbuildings, went sleepily to their horses and 
rakes, spread themselves over the meadow, and soon all 
was life and work again. Only grandfather went out of 
one house and in to another, at last up on the highest 
oarn-bridge, and looked out. A little boy came running 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


105 

up to him : probably he had called him. The boy, sure 
enough, started over in the direction Pladsen lay. The 
grandfather, in the mean while, moved here and there 
about the farm, while he often looked upwards, and had 
at least a suspicion that the black spot up on the 44 Great 
Stone ” was Marit and Oeyvind. But for a second time 
Marit’ s great dog was the cause of trouble. He saw a 
strange horse drive into the Hcide farms ; and, under the 
impression that he was in the midst of his farm duties, he 
began to bark with all his might. They hushed the dog, 
but he had become angry, and would not stop : the grand- 
father stood below, and still stared up. But it grew still 
worse, for all the cowherds’ dogs heard with amazement 
the strange voice, and came running up. When they 
saw that it was a great, wolf-like giant, all the stiff-haired 
Finnish dogs united round this one. Marit became so 
frightened, that she ran away without any farewell. 
Oeyvind rushed into the midst of the fight, kicked and 
fought ; but the dogs only changed their field of battle, 
and then set to again with frightful howls; he after 
again, and so it kept on, until they had waltzed over to 
the very edge of the brook ; there he again ran up to 
them : the consequence of which was, that they tumbled 
all together down into the water just at a place where it 
was quite deep, and there separated shamefaced. So 
ended this forest-battle. Oeyvind walked across through 
the wood till he reached the road; but Marit met the 
grandfather up by the fence. 

44 Where do you come from ? ” 

44 From the wood.” 

44 What were you doing there 
44 Picking berries.” 

44 That is not true.” 

44 No : it is not.” 


jo6 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


“ What were you doing then?” 

“ I was talking to some one.” 

“Was it with that Pladsen boy?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Listen to me, Marit : to-morrow you leave.” 

“No” 

“ Listen to me, Marit : I shall only say one thing to you 
only one, — you shall leave.” 

“You cannot lift me into the carriage?” 

“No? can I not?” 

“No ; for you will not.” 

“Will I not? Listen to me, Marit: only for fun, you 
see, — only for fun, — I tell you that I will smash the 
oackbone of that good-for-nothing fellow of yours.” 

“ No : that you dare not do.” 

“Dare I not? Do you say I dare not? Who would 
do any thing to me, — who?” 

“ The schoolmaster.” 

“ Schoo — school — schoolmaster? Does he trouble 
himself about him, do you think?” 

“Yes: it is he who has kept him at the Agricultural 
School.” 

“ The schoolmaster?” 

“ Yes : the schoolmaster ! ” 

“ Listen to me, Marit : I will not hear any more of this 
raving ; you shall leave the district. You only make me 
trouble and sorrow. I am an old man ; I wish to see you 
well cared-for : I will not live in folks* talk as a fool, just 
on account of this. I only desire your own good : you 
ought to understand that, Marit. It will soon be ovet 
with me, and then you are left here : how would it have 
fared with your mother, if it had not been for me ? Lis- 
ten to me, Marit : be reasonable, hear what I have to say ; 
I only wish for your own good.” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


107 

u No : that you do not.” 

“ Do I not? What do I wish then? ” 

“To have your own will, that is what you want; but 
you do not ask about mine.” 

“ Tou have a will perhaps, you young sea-gull you , 
Perhaps you understand what is for your own good, you 
fool you ! 1 will give you a little whipping, for all you 

are so big and tall. Listen to me, Marit : let me talk 
kindly with you. You are not so bad, after all ; but vo'i 
are not quite in your right mind. You must listen to me : 
I am a sensible old man. We will talk kindly together: 
1 am not so well off as folks think ; a poor, loose bird 
can soon fly away with the little I have ; your father was 
hard on it. Let us take care of ourselves in this world: 
we cannot do any thing better. The schoolmaster can 
well afford to talk, for he has money himself; so has the 
minister too : let them preach. But we who must toil for 
our food, for us it is another thing. I am old, I know a 
great deal, I have seen many things: love, you see, can 
be well enough to talk about ; yes, but it is not good for 
any thing. It is good enough for ministers, and that kind 
of people: peasants must go to work in another way. 
First food, you see, then God’s Word, and then a little 
writing and arithmetic, and then a little love, if it falls in 
the way ; but the devil if it is worth while to begin with 
love, and end with food! What have you to answer 
now, Marit?” 

“ I do not know.” 

“ Don’t you know what you shall answer ? ” 

“Yes: I do know.” 

“Well, then?” 

“ May I say it? ” 

“ Yes : to be sure you may say it.” 

“I think a great deal of the love.” 


i oS 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


He stood a moment in consternation, calling to mind a 
hundred similar conversations with similar results, shook 
his head, turned his back, and went. 

He picked a quarrel with the workmen, scolded th€ 
girls, beat the big dog, and nearly scared the life out of a 
little hen which had strayed into the field; but to Marit 
. lie said nothing. 

That evening Marit was sc happy when she went up 
to bed, that she opened the window, lay up in the win- 
dow-seat, looked out, and sung. She had received a 
pretty little souvenir-book from Oeyvind ; and in it there 
was a pretty little love-song tfiat she sung. 






CHAPTER XII. 

S EVERAL years have passed since the last events. 

It is late in the autumn. The schoolmaster comes 
walking up to Nordistuen, opens the outer door, finds no 
one at home, opens another, finds no one there either; so 
keeps on until he reaches the innermost room in the long 
building. There Ole Nordistuen is sitting alone in front 
of the bed, and looking at his hands. 

The schoolmaster bows, and he bows in return : he 
takes a stool, and seats himself in front of Ole. 

44 You have sent for me,” he says. 
u So I have.” 

The schoolmaster takes a fresh quid, looks round the 
room, takes up a book which is lying on the bench, and 
turns over the leaves. 

u What was it you wanted of me? ” 

“ I am just sitting thinking it over.” 

The schoolmaster gives himself good time, searches 
for his spectacles to read the title of the book, wipes 
them, and puts them on. 

u You are growing old now, Ole.” 

44 Yes : it was about that I wished to speak to you. I 
am failing: soon I shall lie in my grave.” 

44 Then you ought to take care that you lie there well, 
Ole.” 


no 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


He closes the book, and sits looking at the cover. 

44 That is a good book that you have in your hand.” 

44 It is not bad : have you often got beyond the cover 
Ole” 

44 Now of late.” 

The schoolmaster lays down the book and puts away 
tiis spectacles. 

44 I do not think things are going on now as you would 
like to have them, Ole.” 

44 That they have not done as far back as I can remem* 
- ber ” 

44 Yes: it was so with me a long time. I lived at en- 
mity with a good friend, and wished that he would come 
to me, and as long as that lasted I was unhappy. At 
last I hit on the expedient of going to him, and since 
then it has been well with me.” 

Ole looks up and is silent. 

44 IIow do you think the farm is going on, Ole?” 

44 Down hill, like myself.” 

44 Who shall have it when you are taken away'? ” 

44 That is what I do not know ; that it is, too, which 
torments me.” 

44 Your neighbors are getting on well now, Ole.” 

44 Yes: they have that head-farmer to help them.” 

The schoolmaster turned carelessly towards the win- 
dow. 

4 ^/You ought to have help, — you, too, Ole. You can- 
not walk much, and you understand but little of the new 
ways.” 

44 I do not suppose there is any one who will help me.” 

44 Have y r ou asked for it?” 

Ole was silent. 

44 1 also treated our Lord in the same way a long time. 
You are not kind to me I said to Him. — Have you 


THE IIAPPY BOY. m 

prayed me to be so? asked He. — No, that I had not ; so 
I prayed, and since then all has gone \vell. ,, 

Ole is silent, and now the schoolmaster is silent too. 

At last Ole says, — 

“ I have a grandchild : she knows what would please 
me before lam taken away ; but she does not do it.” 

The schoolmaster smiles. 

41 Perhaps it would not please her? ” 

Ole is silent. 

“ There are many things which annoy you ; but, as far 
as I can make out, they are all connected with the 
farm.” 

Ole says in a low voice, — 

“ It has gone through many generations, and the soil is 
good. All that father after father has scraped together 
lies in it ; but now nothing grows. Nor do I know who 
shall drive in after I have been driven out. He will not 
be one of the family.” 

“She who is the grandchild will continue the family.” 

“ But he who takes her, how will he take the farm? 
That I must know before I go to my rest. There is no 
time to be lost, Baard, either with me or the farm.” 

They are both silent ; then the schoolmaster says, — 

“ Shall we go out a little, and take a look at the farm 
in the fine weather?” 

Yes : let us do so. I have work-people up on the 
slope : they are gathering leaves, but only work while I 
am looking on.” 

lie totters over after the big cap and stick, and says, in 
the mean time, — 

“ I don’t think they like to work for me : I don’t un- 
derstand it.” 

When they had fairly come out, and were going round 
the house, he stopped. 


1 1 2 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


“ Now, look here. No order ; the wood thrown about, 
the axe not stuck in the block.” 

He bent over with difficulty, lifteJ it, and drove it in 
fast. 

“Here you see a skin which has fallen down ; but has 
any one hung it up again ? ” 

He did it himself. 

“ And here the storehouse ; do you suppose the steps 
are taken away ? ” 

He carried them away himself. Then stopping, he 
looked at the schoolmaster, and said, — 

“ So it is every single day.” 

As they went upwards, they heard a merry song from 
the slopes. 

“ Now they are singing at their work,” said the school- 
master. 

“That is little Knut Oestistuen, who is singing: he is 
gathering leaves for his father. Over there my people 
are working : they are not likely to be singing.” 

“ That is not one of the parish songs? ” 

“ No : I hear that.” 

“ Oeyvind Pladscn has been much over there in Oes- 
tistuen : perhaps it is one of those he has brought to the 
parish ; for there is much singing where he is.” 

To this there was no answer. 

The held they walked over was not in good condition ; 
it needed attention. The schoolmaster remarked on 
this, and then Ole stopped. 

“ I have not strength to do any thing more,” he said 
almost pathetically. 

“Hired work-people, without looking after, come too 
dear. But it is hard to walk over such a field, you may 
believe.” 

As their conversation now turned on to how laige the 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


Ill 

farm was and what parts most needed cultivation, they 
concluded to go up on the slope where they could over 
look the whole. When they had at last reached a high 
point, and could take it all in, the old man was moved. 

44 1 really should not like to leave it so. We have 
worked down there, both I and my parents ; but there i. ; 
nothing to show for it now.” 1 

A song burst out directly over their heads, but with 
the peculiar sharpness a boy’s voice has when it is poured 
out in full blast. They were not far from the tree, in the 
top of which little Knut Oestistuen was sitting gathering 
leaves for his father, and they had to listen to the boy. 

Ole had sat down, and concealed his face in his hands. 
44 Here I will speak with you,” said the schoolmaster, 
sitting down by his side. 


Down at Pladsen, Oeyvind had just returned from 
rather a long journey. The boy who had driven him 
was still before the door, as the horse was resting. Al- 
though Oeyvind’s earnings, as head-farmer for the district, 
were now very fair, he still lived in his little room down 
at Pladsen, and assisted his parents in his spare time. 
Pladsen was cultivated from one end to the other ; but it 
was so small, that Oeyvind called the whole 44 Mother’s 
Plaything ; ” for it was she in particular who gave atten- 
tion to the farming. 

He had just changed his clothes : his father had come 
in from the mill white with meal, and had also dressed. 
They stood talking about taking a short walk before sup- 
per, when the mother came in quite pale. 

44 Here are queer visitors coming up to the house : oh 
dear ! do look out ! ” 

Both men rushed to the window, and Oeyvind it was 
who first exclaimed, — 


8 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


IX 4 

“ Why, it is the schoolmaster ; and, — yes, I almost be* 
lieve, — yes, it is certainly he ! ” 

es : it is old Ole Nordistuen,” said Thorc, also turn- 
ing away from the window so as not to be seen ; for the 
two were already in front of the house. 

Oeyvind caught a glance trom the schoolmaster, just as 
he was going away from the window. Baard smiled 
and looked back at Ole, who with his stick was toiling 
on in small, short steps, lifting one leg constantly higher 
than the other. Outside, the schoolmaster was heard 
to say, “ I believe he has lately returned home;" and 
Ole twice over rejoined, “Well, well.” 

They remained a long time quiet out in the passage. 
The mother had crept up into the corner where the milk- 
shelf was : Oeyvind stood in his favorite position, lean- 
ing his back against the great table, with his face turned 
towards the door: the father sat there by his side. At 
last there was a knock ; and then in walked the school- 
master and pulled off his hat, afterwards Ole and pulled 
off his cap, after which he turned towards the door to 
shut it. He was long in turning round again ; he was 
evidently embarrassed. Thore rose, asked them to take a 
seat inside : they seated themselves side by side on the 
bench in front of the window, Thore sat down again. 

And now we shall see how the match was arranged. 

The schoolmaster began, — 

“We have fine weather this autumn, after all.” 

“ It has improved of late,” replied Thore. 

“ It generally holds a good while I think, when it gets 
over in that quarter.” 

“ Have you got in the crop up there ? ” 

“We have not: Ole Nordistuen here, whom you per- 
haps know, would like your help, Oeyvind, if there is 
nothing else in the way?” 


THE HAPPY BOY, 


XI 5 


44 When it is required, I shall do what I can,” answered 
Oeyvind. 

44 But it was not exactly at the present moment he 
meant. The farm does not go on well he thinks, and 
he believes that what is lacking is the right system of cub 
tivation and proper oversight.” 

44 But I am so little at home,” said Oeyvind. 

The schoolmaster looks at Ole. He feels that he must 
now say something : he clears his throat a couple of times, 
and begins quickly and shortly, — 

44 It was, it is, — yes, — we meant that you should be 
in a manner established, — that you should be, — yes, — 
be as it were at home up there with us, — be there when 
you were not out.” 

44 Many thanks for the offer, but I would like to live 
where I now am.” 

Ole looks at the schoolmaster, who says, — 

44 It seems to go wrong with Ole to-day. The fact is, 
that he has been here once before, and the recollection 
of that puts the words in a snarl for him.” 

44 Yes, so it is: I ran the race of a madman,” put in 
Ole, quickly. 44 1 strove against the girl until the tree 
split. But let bygones be bygones : the rain-brook does 
not loosen large stones ; snow does not lie long on the 
ground in May ; it is not the thunder which kills people.” 

They all four laugh. The schoolmaster says, — 

44 Ole means that you must not remember that occasion 
any longer ; nor you either, Thore.” 

Ole looks at them without knowing whether he dare 
begin again. 

Then Thore says, — 

44 The wild briar takes hold with many teeth, but tears 
no wounds. In me, at all events, there are no thorns 
left.” 


n6 


THE HArPY BOY. 


4< I did not know the boy at that time./* says Ole. 
“Now I see that what he sows grows ; the harvest fulfils 
the promise of the spring ; there is money in his finger 
ends, and I should like to get hold of him.” 

Oeyvind looks at the father, he at the mother, she from 
them to the schoolmaster, and then ail three at him. 

“ Ole thinks that he lias a large farm.” 

“A large farm,” interrupts Ole, “but ill-managed. 
I can do no more : I am old, and my legs cannot run 
errands for my head. But it is well worth while to go 
to work up there.” 

“ The largest farm in the parish, and that by a great 
deal,” puts in the schoolmaster. 

“ The largest farm in the parish,” echoes Ole. “ But 
that is just the misfortune : shoes that are too large fall 
off; it is well to have a good gun, but one must be able 
to lift it.” Then turning quickly towards Oeyvind, u Per- 
haps you might lend a hand to it,” he said. 

“So I should be farm-overseer?” 

“ Exactly so : you should have the farm.” 

“ Should I have the farm ? ” 

“ Exactly so : you should conduct it.” 

“ But,” — 

“ Will you not ? ” 

“ Yes, of course.” 

“Yes, yes; yes, yes: then it is all settled as the hen 
*aid, when she flew on to the water.” 

But,” — 

Ole looks puzzled at the schoolmaster, who remarks,*— 

“ Oeyvind is asking, I think, whether he shall have 
Marit too?” 

“Marit into the bargain,” quickly replies Ole, 

“Marit into the bargain ! ” 

Thereupon, Oeyvind burst out laughing, and jumped 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


ll 7 


Straight up ; after him all three laughed. Oeyvind rubbed 
his hands together, and rushed backwards and forwards 
over the floor, repeating over and over: “Marit into the 
bargain ! Marit into the bargain ! ” Thore laughed with a 
deep chuckle, the mother stood up in the corner with her 
eyes fixed on her son until they filled with tears. 

“ What do you think about the farm,” says Ole, in 
great excitement. 

“ Splendid land ! ” 

“ Splendid land ! isn’t it?’' 

“ No pasture like it ! ” 

u No pasture like it!” 

“ Will it do?” 

“It will be the best farm in the district!” 

“ The best farm in the district ! Do you think so ? Do 
you mean so?” 

u As true as I am standing here ! ” 

“ Yes : that is just what I say.” 

They both talked with the same rapidity, and fitted to- 
gether like two wheels. 

Hut money, you see, money? I have no money,” 
said Ole. 

“ It goes on slowly without money ; but still it will go.” 

“It will go! Of course it will go! But if we had 
money, it would go quicker you think?” 

“ Many times quicker.” 

14 Many times? We ought to have money ! Yes, yes : 
a man can chew without all his teeth ; he who drives 
with oxen comes along at last.” 

The mother stood winking at Thore, who kept looking 
at her from one side and then looking away again 
quickly, while he sat swaying his body to and fro and 
rubbing his hands down over his knees. The schoolmas- 
ter winked at him too. Thore opened his mouth, 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


1x8 

coughed a little, and made an attempt ; but Ole and Oey« 

vind talked so incessantly into each other’s mouths, ana 

laughed and made such a noise, that no one could make 
. f 

himself heard. 

“You must be quiet a little while : Thore has some- 
thing he wishes to say,” interrupts the schoolmaster. 

They stop and look at Thore, who finally begins in a 
low tone. 

44 For a long time on this place we had one mill : later 
it has been so that we have had two. These mills have 
always yielded a few skillings in the course of the year; 
but neither my father nor I have used any of the skillings 
except while Oeyvind was away. The schoolmaster has 
taken care of them, and he says they have paid well 
where they were ; but now it is best that Oeyvind should 
take them for Nordistuen.” 

The mother stood off in the corner, making herself 
quite small ; but she looked with sparkling joy at Thore, 
who sat very gravely, looking almost stupid. Ole Nor- 
distuen sat opposite him with gaping mouth. Oeyvind 
was the first to recover from his astonishment, and burst 
out with, — 

“Does it not seem as if good luck pursued me?” 

Thereupon, he walked across the floor to the father, 
slapped him on the shoulders so that it resounded : “ You 
hither ! ” said he, rubbing his hands together and continu- 
ing his walk. 

“How much money might there be?” asked Ole at 
last of the schoolmaster, in a low voice. 

41 It is not so little.” 

44 Some hundreds? ” 

44 A little more.” 

44 A little more? Oeyvind, a little more! Good Lord, 
what a farm it will be 1 ” 


THE HAPPY BOY. 


119 


He rose and laughed loudly. 

“ I must go with you up to Mark’s,” says Oeyvind : 
u we can use the carriage which is standing outside so as 
to be quick.” 

“ Yes : quick, quick ! Willow, too, have every thing 
quick ? ” 

“ Yes : quick and mad.” 

“ Quick and mad ! Exactly as when I was young, 
exactly ! ” 

“ Here is your cap and stick : now I am going to drive 
you along ! ” 

“You drive me along, ha, ha, ha ! but you are coming 
too, ar’n’t you, — you are coming too ? Come along, you 
others, too ; this evening we must sit together as long as 
the coals are alive ; come too ! ” 

They promised this : Oeyvind helped him into the car- 
riage, and they drove up to Nordistuen. Up there the 
big dog was not the only one who was amazed when Ole 
Nordistuen drove into the farm with Oeyvind Pladsen. 
While Oeyvind was helping him out of the carriage, and 
servants and work-people were gaping at them, Mark 
came out into the passage to see what the dog was bark- 
ing at so incessantly, but stopped as if spellbound, then 
turned burning red, and ran in. Old Ole in the mean 
time shouted so fearfully for her when he had gone into 
the house, that she was obliged to make her appearance 
again. 

“ Go and make yourself smart, girl : here is the one 
who is to have the farm.” 

“Is it true?” she says, without knowing it herself, and 
so loud that it echoed. 

“Yes: it is true 1 ” answers Oeyvind, clapping his 

nands. 

Thereupon, she swings round on her toe, throws far 


130 


THE HAPPY ROY. 


away what she has in her hand, and runs out ; but Oey 
vmd after her. 

Soon came the schoolmaster, Thore, and his wife : the 
old man had had candles put on the table, which was 
spread with a white cloth. Wine and beer were offered ; 
and he himself went about constantly lifting his feet still 
higher than usual, but his right foot constantly higher 
than the left. 


Befoj'e this little tale is finished, it may be told that 
five weeks afterwards Oeyvind and Mar it were united in 
the parish church. The schoolmaster himself led the 
singing that day, for his assistant beadle was ill. His 
voice was broken now, for he was old ; but Oeyvind 
thought it did one good to hear him. And when he had 
given his hand to Marit and led her up to the altar, the 
schoolmaster nodded to him from the choir, just as Oey- 
vind had seen him when he sat mournful at the dancing- 
party : he nodded back, while tears struggled to come up. 
The tears at the dancing-party were the harbingers of 
these at the wedding ; and between them lay his faith 
and his work. 

Here ends the story of a happy boy. 



many a family has been raised by the genuine pMl&ntroph^ c4 
modem progress and of modern opportunities. But many people <19 
not avail of them. They jog along in their old ways until they are 
etuek fast in a mire of hopeless dirt. Friends desert them, ffothey 
have already deserted themselves by neglecting their own best inter esta 
Out of the dirt of kitchen, or Lall or parlor, any house can be quickly 
brought by the useofSapolio which is sold by all grocers at 10c. a cake. 


i 


; 



GOOD HEWS 

xa ladies. 

Greatest inducements ever of- 
fered. Now’s your time to get up 
orders for our celebrated Teas 
and CofTees.and secure a beauti- 
ful Gold Bana orMoes Rose China 
^ , _ Tea Set, or Handsome Decorated 

Gold Band Moss Roso Dinner Set, or Gold Band Mosa 
Decorated Toilet Set. Fox " 


LIBRARY. 

AHEAD OF ALL COMPETITORS, 


The Improvements being constantly made in “Lovell’s Library,” have placed it in the Front Raako# 
•heap publications in this country. The publishers propose to still further improve the series by haring 

Better Paper, Better Printing, Larger Type, 

•ad more attractive cover than any series In the market. 


SEIEJ "WHALT IS SAID OP IT: 

The following extract from a letter recently received shows the appreciation ta 
Which the Library is held by those who most constantly read it : 

“Mbrcantiui Library, Baltimorb, August 29, 1888. 

**Will you kindly send me two copies of your latest list! I am glad to see that you now issue a voloma 
Oresy Jay. Your Library wo find greatly preferable to the ‘Ssaside’and -Franklin Square’ Series, and eve* 
better than the lsmo. form of the latter, the page being of better shape, the lines better leaded, and the word* 
better spaeed. Altogether your 6eriee is mo A more in favor with our subscribers than either of its rival*. 

S. C. DONALDSON, Assistant Librarian.” 


JOHN W. LOVELL CO., Publishers, 14 & 16 Vesey Street, New York. 



THE BEST 

WASHING COMPOUND 

EVER INVENTED. 

Ho Lady* Harried or 
Single* Rich or Poor* 
Housekeeping or Board- 
ing, will bo without it 
after testing its utility* 
Sold by first-class 
Ctroeers* but beware ot 
worthless imitations, 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY. 


Lovell’s Library now contains the complete writings of most of the best standard 
authors, such as Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Carlyle, Ruskiu, Scott, Lytton, Black, 
etc., etc. 

Each number is issued in neat 12mo form, and the type vnll be found larger, and 
the paper better, than in any other cheap series published. 

Any number in the following list can generally be obtained from ail booksellers and 
newsdealers, or when it cannot be so obtained, will be sent, free by mail , on receipt 
of price by the publishers. 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

14 and 16 Vesey St., New York. 

T. O. Box 1993. 

CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE BY TITLES. 


Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey, No. 

224 10 

Abbott, The, by Scott, No. 569 20 

A Brighton Night, by Lee, No. 600 20 

A Broken Wedding-Ring, No. 420 20 

A Cardinal Sin, by Hugh Conway, No. 

715 20 

A Christmas Carol, by Dickens, No. 274.15 
Adam Bede, by Eliot, 2 Parts, No. 66, 

each 15 

A Daughter of Heth, No. 82 20 

Admiral’s Ward, by Alexander, No. 99.20 
Adrift with a Vengeance, Cornwallis, 

No. 409 25 

Adventurers, The, by Aimard, No. 560.10 
Adventures of Philip, by W. M. Thack- 
eray, 2 Parts, No. 235, each 15 

A Fair Device, by Balestier, No. 381. . .20 
Afloat and Ashore, by Cooper, No. 532 . 25 
A Girton Girl, Mrs. Edwards, No. 681.. 20 

Airy Fairy Lilian, No. 92 20 

A Legend of the Rhine, No. 286 .10 

Alice, by Lord Lytton, Na. 45 20 

Alice’s Adventures, by Carroll, No. 480.20 

All in a Garden Fair, No. 257 20 

Altiora Peto, by Oliphant, No. 196 20 

A Maiden All Forlorn, by The Duchess, 

No. 621 10 

A Marriage in High Life, No. 41 .20 

Ameline de Bourg, No. 122 15 

American Notes, No. 210 15 

Amos Barton, by G. Eliot, No. 69 10 

An Adventure in Thule ; and Marriage 

of Moira Fergus, No. 40 10 

Anderson’s Fairy Tales, No. 419 20 

A New Lease of Life, No. 118 20 

An Interesting Case, No. 346 20 

An Ishmaelite, by Braddon, No. 444.. .20 
Anne of Geierstein, by Scott, No. 595.. 20 
An Old Man’s Love, by Trollope, No. 

867 15 

An Outline of Irish History, No. 115. . .10 

Antiquary, by Scott, No. $29 20 

Anti-Slavery Days, No. 167 10 

A Passive Crime, by Duchess, No. 624. .10 
A Perilous Secret, by Reade, No. 415. .20 
A Princess of Thule, by Black, No. 48.30 
Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, No. 
397 35 


A Rainy June, Ouida, No. 675 10 

Aratra Pentelici, Raskin, No. 647 15 

Arden, by Robinson, No. 134 15 

A Real Queen, by Francillon, No. 319.. 20 

Ame, by Bjornson, No. 4 10 

Art of England, Ruskin, No. 673 15 

Arundel Motto, by M. C. Hay, No. 666.20 

A Sea Queen, by Russell, No. 123 20 

A Sheep in Wolfs Clothing, No. 475. . . .20 
Assignation, and Other Tales, by Poe, 

No. 438 15 

Astoria, by Irving, No. 299 20 

A Strange Story, by Lytton, No. 55 ... 20 
A Summer in Skye, by A. Smith, No. 

594 20 

At a High Price, by E. Werner, No. 614.20 
At Bay, by Mrs. Alexander, No. 664. . . .10 

A Tour on the Prairies, No. 305 10 

At War with Herself, B. M. Clay, No. 

651 15 

Aunt Margaret’s Mirror, by Scott, No. 

605 .....10 

Aurora Floyd, by Braddon, No. 555 20 

Aurora Leigh, Mrs. Browning, No. 421.20 
Autobiography of A. Trollope, No. 251.20 
A Week in Killarney, by The Duchess, 

No. 477 10 

A Woman’s Honor, by Young, No. 691.20 
A Woman’s Temptation, by Clay, No. 

474 30 

Aytoun’s Lays of Scottish Cavaliers, 

No. 351 29 

Bailie the Covenanter, etc., Carlyle, No. 

658 15 

Ballads, by Thackeray, No. 306 * 15 

Barbara’s Rival, by Young, No. 666 ... 30 
Barnaby Rudge, 2 Parts, No. 150, each . 15 

Baron Munchausen, No. 47 10 

Barrv Lyndon, by Thackeray, No. 164. .2(1 

Battle of Life, The, etc., No. 293 10 

Beauchampe, by Simms, No. 705 30 

Beauty’s Daughters, No. 168 20 

Belinda, by Broughton, No. 230 20 

Berber, The, by W. Mayo, No. 70 20 

Berkeley the Banker, No. 357 20 

Betrothed, by Scott, No. 635 20 

Between Two Sins, by Clay, No. 593. . .10 

Beyond Pardon, No. 287 20 

Beyond tho Sunrise, No. 169. 30 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY . 


Black Dwarf, by Scott, No. 490 i0 

Black Pocdle, and Other Tales, No. 45-3.20 

Bleak House, 2 Parts, No. 244, each 20 

Book of Snobs, Thackeray, No. 220 ... JO 

Border Beagles, Simms, No. 693 30 

Bourbon Lilies, No. 119 20 

Boy at Mugby, The, No. 237 10 

Bracebridge Hall, No. 281 20 


Bravo, The, by J. F. Cooper, No. 524. . .20 
Bride of Lammermoor, by Scott, No. 4S9.20 
Bnerlield Tragedy, by Redd, No. 408. . .20 
Brother Jacob, and Mr. Gilfil’s Love 
Story, by George Eliot, No. 208.. 10 


Browning’s, Mrs., Poems, No. 479 35 

Browning’s, Robert, Poems, No. 552... 20 

Bryant’s Poems, No. 443 20 

Burns’ Poems, by Burns, No. 430 20 

Byron, Complete Works of, No. 547 ... 30 
By the Gate of the Sea, No. 197 15 


Called Back, by Hugh Conway, No. 429.15 


Campbell’s Poems, No. 526 20 

Canon’s Ward, The. No. 330 20 

Carriston’8 Gift, by Conway, No. 612 ..10 

Captain Bonneville, No. 311 20 

Castle Dangerous, by Scott, No. 492 15 

Cast up by the Sea, No. 206 20 

Catherine, by Thackeray, No. 148 10 

Cavendish Card Essays, No. 422.. . . . .15 
Caxtons, The, by Lytton, 2 Parts, No. 

250, each 15 

Chain-Bearer, The, by Cooper, No. 576.20 

'lharacter Sketches, etc.. No. 303 10 

characteristics, etc., Carlyle, No. 652.. 15 

Charlemont, Simms, No. 702 SO 

Charlotte Temple, No. 159 10 

Charmed Sea, by Martineau, No. 379. . .15 
Chartism, by Thomas Carlyle, No. 503.20 
Chase, The, by Jules Lermina. No. 469.20 

Childhood of the World, No. 386 10 

Child Hunters, The, No. 483 15 

Children of the Abbey, by Roche, No. 

411 30 

hild’s History of England, No. 75 20 

Jhristmas Books, No. 304 20 

Christmas Stories, by Farley, No. 473. . .20 
Chronicles of the Canongate, by Scott, 

No. 607 15 

Clayton’s Rangers, No. 340 20 

Clytie, by Joseph Hatton, No. 7 20 

Coleridge’s Poem-, No. 523 80 

Coming Race, The, by Lytton, No. 11 . . .10 

Companions of Columbus, No. SOI 20 

Confession, by Simms, No. 6S0 .80 

\ Conquest of Granada, No. 272 20 

j' Conquest of Spain, No. 279 10 

Corn Law Rhymes, etc., Carlyle, No. 

t 656 15 

Count Cagliostro, by Carlyle, No. 571. .15 
Count Robert of Paris, by Scott, No. 

557 i 20 

Count of Talavera, No. 468 20 

Cox’s Diary, etc., No. 286 20 

(Crater, The, by Cooper, No. 559 20 

(Crayon Papers, The, Irving, No. 249... 20 


Critical Reviews, Thackeray, No. 252.. 10 
Crown of Wild Olive, Ruskin, No. 505. .10 

Cruel London, No. 137 20 

Cryptogram, The, by Verne, No. 85 10 

Dame Durden, by “ Rita,” No. 556 20 

Daniel Deronda, 2 Parts, No. 195, each. 20 
Dante Rossetti’s Poems, No. 329 20 


Dante’s Vision of Hell, Purgatory, and 

Paradise. No. 345 20 

Dark Colleen, The, by Jay, No. 17 20 

Dark Days, by Hugh Conway, No. 462.15 
David Copperfield, 2 Parts, No. 158, 

each 20 

Dead Sea Fruit, by Braddon, No. 596.. 20 

Dean's Daughter, The, No. 89 20 

Deep Down, No. 241 20 

Deerslayer, by J. F. Cooper, No. 463.. . 30 

Denis Duval, No. 143 10 

Deucalion, by Ruskin, No. 670 15 

Devereux, by Lytton, No. 247 28i 

Diamond Necklace ; and Mirabeau, by 

Carlyle, No. 500 15 

Dick’s Sweetheart, by Duchess, No. 618.20 
Disarmed, by M. Betham-Ed wards, No. 

203 15 

Disowned, by Lytton, No. 222 20 

Divorce, by Margaret Lee, No. 25 20 

Dombey and Son, 2 Parts, No. 219, 

each 20 

Don Quixote, No. 417 30 

Dora Thorne, by B. M. Clay, No. 277. . .20 

Doris, by The Duchess, No. 451 20 

Dorothy Forster, by Besant, No. 384. ..20 

Dr. Francia, etc., Carlyle, No. 661 16 

Dry den’s Poems, No. 498 SO 

Duke of Kandos, by Mathey, No. 46.. .20 

Dunallan, 2 Parts, No. 106, each 15 

Eagle’s Nest, by Ruskin, No. 676 15 

Earl’s Atonement, by Bertha M. Clay, 

No. 465 20 

Early Days of Christianity, 2 Parts, No. 

50, each 20 

Early Days of Norway, No. 514 20 

Eastern Sketches. No. 256 10 

East Lynne, by Mrs. Wood, No. 54 20 

Eight Years’ Wandering in Ceylon, No. 

233 20 

Elbow Room, by Max Adeler, No. 325.. 20 

English Humorists, No. 313 15 

Erling the Bold, No. 239 20 

Ernest Maltravers, No. 31 20 

Essays, by George Eliot, No. 374 20 

Essays, by R. W. Emerson, No. 373 20 

Ethics of the Dust, Ruskin, No. 510. . . 10 

Eugene Aram, by Lytton, No. 204 20 

Eutaw, by W. G. Simms, No. 703 30 

Every-Day Cook-Book, No. 332 20 

Evolution, by Rev. C. F. Deems, No. 

704 20 

Executor, The, No. 209 20 

Eyre’s Acquittal, by Mathers, No. 165. .10 
Fair but False, by B. M. Clay. No. 558.10 
Fair Maid of Perth, by Scott, No. 638.. 20 

Faith and Unfaith, No. 162 20 

False Hopes, by Goldwin Smith, No. 

110 .15 

Famous Funny Fellows, No. 291 20 

Fatal Boots, etc., No. 262 10 

Felix Holt, by G. Eliot, No. 151 20 

Fettered for Life, by Blake. No. 597. . . .25 

File No. 113, by Gaboriau, No. 258. 20 

Fire Brigade, The, No. 226 20 

Fitzboodle Papers, etc. No. 280 10 

Fleurette, by Eugene Scribe, No. 22 ... 20 
Flower of Doom, The, M. Betham-Ed- 

vvards. No. 663 10 

For Each and For All, No. 863 15 

For Lilias, by Rosa N. Carey, No. 660. .20 
Foray ers, The, Simms, No. 697 30 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY. 


Forbidden Fruit, No. 606 20 

Fora Clavigera, Ruskin, Vol. I., No. 707.. 30 
Fom Clavigera, Ruskin, Vol. II., No. 

708 .30 

Fora Clavigera, Ruskin, Vol. III., No. 

713 30 

Fora Clavigera, Ruskin, Vol. IV., No. 

714 30 

Fortunes of Nigel, by Scott, No. 504. ...20 
Four Georges, by Thackeray, No. 264. .10 

Four MacNicols, The, No. 217 10 

Frankenstein, by Mrs. Shelley, No. 6.. 10 

Freckles, by R. F. Redd, No. 16 20 

Frederick the Great, Vol. I., No. 578. . .20 
Frederick the Great, Vol. II., No. 6S0.20 
Frederick the Great, Vol. III., No. 591.20 
Frederick the Great, Vol. IV., No. 

610 20 

Frederick the Great, Vol. V., No. 019. .20 
Frederick the Great, Vol. VI.. No. 622.20 

Frederick the Great, VII., No. 626 20 

Frederick the Great, VIII., No. 628. . . .20 
Galaski, by G. M. Bayne, No. 460 ... .20 

Gautran, by B. L. Farjeon, No. 243 20 

German Literature, by Carlyle, No. 550.15 
Giant’s Robe, by F. Anstey, No. 394. ..20 

Gideon Fleyce, by H. Lucy, No. 96 20 

Godolphin, by Lytton, No. 289 20 

Goethe, etc., by Carlyle, No. 522 10 

Goethe’s Faust, No. 342 .20 

Goethe’s Poems, No. 343 20 

Gold Bug, and Other Tales, by Poe, No. 

432 .....I.... 15 

Golden Calf, The, by Braddon, No. 88.20 
Golden Dog, The, by F. Kirby, No. 454.40 

Golden Girls, by A. Muir, No. 312 20 

Golden Shaft, The, by Gibbon, No. 57.20 
Goldsmith’s Plays and Poems, No. 302.20 

Glen of the Echoes. No. 400 15 

Grandfather Lickshingle, No. 350 20 

Grandfather’s Chair, by Hawthorne, 

No. 376 20 

Great Expectations, No. 192 20 

Great Hoggarty Diamond, No. 316 10 

Green Mountain Boys, No. 21 20 

Gre«B Pastures, etc., No. 184 20 

Grirmm’s Fairy Tales, No. 221 20 

Gulliver’s Travels, No. 08 20 

Guy Mannering, by Scott, No. 620 20 

Guy Rivers, by Simms, No. 690 30 

Gypsy Queen /The, No. 98 20 

Happy Boy, The, by Bjornson, No. 3.. 10 
Happy Man, The, by Lover, No. 163.. .10 

Hard Times, No. 170 20 

Harold, 2 Parts, No. 276, each 15 

Harry Holbrooke, No. 101. 20 

Harry Lorrequer, No. 327 20 

Haunted Hearts, No. 125 10 

Haunted House, The, etc., No. 32 10 

Headsman, The, by Cooper, No. 519 20 

Heart and Science, No. 87 20 

Heart of Mid-Lothian, by Scott, No. 

499 ; 30 

Heidenmaur, by Cooper, No. 517 20 

Hemans’, Mrs., Poems, No. 583 30 

Henry Esmond, No. 141 20 

Her Mother’s Sin, No. 183 20 

Her Martyrdom, B. M. Clay, No. 689. . .20 

Hermits, The, No. 39 20 

Heroes, and Hero-Worship, No. 641 20 

Hilda, by B. M. Clay, No. 669 10 

H&l and Valley, by Marbkieau, No, 372.15 


History of the French Revolution, 2 
Pts., by Carlyle, No. 486, each ... 28 

History of the Mormons, No. 440 15 

Home as Found, by Cooper, No. 441... 20 
Homer’s Iliad, by Pope, No. 396 . *30 

Homer’s Odyssey, by Pope, No. 391. . . .20 

Homes Abroad, No. 358 ]5 

Home Scenes, by Arthur, No.’ 545. 15 

Homeward Bound, by Cooper, No. 378.20 

Hood’s Poem^ No. 511 39 

Horse-Shoe Robinson, 2 Parts, No. 67, 

each 

Housekeeping and Homemaking, No. 

167 

How He Reached the White House, No. 

402 >25 

How It All Came Round, No. 328 20 

Hygiene of the Brain, No. 356 25 

Hypatia, 2 Parts, No. 64, each ”.15 

Hyperion, by Longfellow, No. 1 20 

“ I Say No,” by Wilkie Collins, No. 418.20 
In Cupid’s Net, B. M. Clay, No. 700. ...10 

India and Ceylon, No. 97 20 

Indian Song of Songs, No. 472.11. . ' . .10 
India : What can It Teach Us ? No. 130.20 

In Durance Vile, by The Duchess 10 

In Peril of His Life, No. 129. ... 20 

In Silk Attire, by Black, No. 188 20 

Integral Co-operation, by A. K. Owen. 

No. 655 .’30 

lone Stewart, by Linton, No. 275 20 

Irene, by Carl Detlef, No. 29 20 

Irish Sketches, etc., Thackeray, No. 292.20 

Ivanhoe, 2 Parts, No 145, each 15 

Jack, by A. Daudet, No. 613 20 

Jack Tier, by Cooper, No. 611 20 

Jane Eyre, by Bront6, No. 74 20 

Janet’s Repentance, No. 149 19 

Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, No. 520.. 10 
Jets and Flashes, by Lukens, No. 131. .20 
John Bull and His Daughters, No. 459.20 

John Bull and His Island, No. 336 20 

John Halifax, by Muloclc, No. 33 20 

John Holdsworth, by Russell, No. 399.20 

John Sterling, by Carlyle, No. 630 20 

Judith Shakespeare, by Wm. Black, 

No. 456 20 

Katherine Walton, by Simms, No. 657.30 

Keats’ Poems, No. 531 25 

Kenelm Chillingly, No. 240 20 

Kenilworth, by Scott, No. 625 25 

Kilmeny, by Wm. Black, No. 180 20 

King of the Golden River, No. 598 10 

Knickerbocker History of New York, 

No. 236 ....20 

L’Abb6 Constantin, No. 15 20 

Labor and Capital, No. Ill 20 

Ladies Lindores, The, No. 124 20 

Lady Audley’s Secret, No. 104 20 

Lady Darner’s Secret, Clay, No. 701 . . .20 
Lady Silverdale’s Sweetheart, No. 216. .10 

Lady of Lyons, No. 121 . 10 

Lady of the Lake, with Notes, No. 359.20 

Lalla Rookh, by T. Moore, No. 416. 20 

Land Question, by George, No. 390 10 

Last Days of Pompeii, No. 59 20 

Last of the Barons, 2 Parts, No. 255, 

each. 15 

Last of the Mohicans, The, No. 6 20 

Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 633 20 

Lays of Ancient Rome, No. 333 20 

Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, No. 361.20 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY. 


Lectures on Architecture and Painting, 

by Buskin, No. 537 15 

Lectures on Art, Buskin, No. 644 15 

Legend of Montrose, by Scott, No. 493.15 

Leila, by Lord Lytton, No. 12 10 

Lessons in Life, by Arthur, No. 579 15 

L t Nothing You Dismay, No. 103 10 

Letters from High Latitudes, No. 95.. .20 
Life and Voyages of Columbus, 2 Parts, 

No. 199, each 20 

Life in the Wilds, No. 388 15 

Life of J. G. Blaine, No. 4U5 20 

Life of Bunyan, No. 348 10 

Life of Burke, by John Morley, No. 

407 10 

Life of Burns, by Shairp, No. 334 10 

Life of Byron, No. 347 10 

Life of Chaucer, by Ward, No. 413 10 

Life of Cowper, by Smith, No. 424 10 

Life of Cromwell, No. 73 15 

Life of Cromwell, Carlyle, Vol. I., No. 

643 25 

Life of Cromwell, Carlyle, Vol. II., No. 

646 25 

Life of Cromwell, Carlyle, Vol. III., No. 

649 25 

Life of Defoe, by Miuto, No. 377 10 

Life of Fredrika Bremer, No. 448 20 

Life of Gibbon, by Morison, No. 383 .. .10 

Life of Grover Cleveland, No. 427 20 

Life of Heyne, by Carlyle, No. 525 15 

Life of Hume, No. 369 10 

Life of Johnson, by Stephen, No. 401.. 10 

Life of Paul Jones, No. 323 20 

Life of Locke, by Fowler, No. 380 10 

Life of Mahomet, 2 Parts, No. 308, each. 15 

Life of Marion, No. 36 20 

Life of Milton, by Pattison, No. 392 10 

Life of Oliver Goldsmith, No. 310 20 

Life of Pope, No. 398 10 

Life of Schiller, by Carlyle, No. 636 20 

Life of Scott, by Hutton, No. 364 10 

Life of Shelley, by Symonds, No. 361.. 10 
Life of Southey, by Dowden, No. 404.. 10 

Life of Spenser, No. 431. 10 

Life of Thackeray, No. 344 10 

Life of Washington, No. 26 20 

Life of Webster, 2 Parts, No. 248, each.15 

Life of Wordsworth, No. 410 10 

Light of Asia, by Arnold, No. 436 20 

Like Dian’s KLs, by “Bita,” No. 599. .20 

Lionel Lincoln, by Cooper. No. 527 20 

Little Dorrit, 2 Parts, No. 223, each... 20 

Little Pilgrim, The, No. 179 10 

Longfellow's Poems, No. 482 .20 

Level, the Widower, No. 156 10 

Love’s Meinie, by Buskin, No. 6S8 15 

Loys, Lord Beresford, No. 126 20 

Loom and Lugger, No. 354 20 

Lord Lvnne’s Choice, Clay, No. 692 10 

Love Works Wonders, by B. M. Clay, 

No. 476 20 

Love's Harvest, Farjeon, No. 654 20 

Lucile, by Meredith. No. 331 20 

Lucretia, by Lytton, No. 253 20 

Luck of the Darrells, Payn, No. 659 .... 20 

Macleod of Dare, No. 93 20 

Madcap Violet, No. 178 20 

Maid of Athens, No. 278 20 

Margaret and her Bridesmaids, No. 66 20 

Mark Seaworth, No. 322 20 

Married Life, by T. S. Arthur, No. 518.15 


Martin Chuzzlewit, 2 Parts, No. 201, 

each 20 

Master Humphrey’s Clock, No. 261 10 

Master of the Mine, Buchanan, No.696.10 

Mellichnmpe, by Simms, No v 648 30 

Men’s Wives, No. 296 10 

Men, Women, and Lovers, by Simcox, 

No. 513 20 

Mercedes of Castile, by Cooper, No. 548.20 
Middlemarch, 2 Parts, No. 174, each.. .20 

Midshipman, The, No. 338 20 

Miles Wallingford, by Cooper, No. 539.. 20 
Mill on the Floss, 2 Parts, No. 207, each.15 
Miss Tommy, by Miss Mulock, No. 435.15 
Mistletoe Bough, Braddon, No. 698.. . .20 
Modern Christianity a Civilized Hea- 
thenism, No. 360 15 

Modern Painters, Vol. I., No. 565 20 

Modern Painters, Vol. II., No. 572 20 

Modern Painters, Vol. III., No. 577. ...20 

Modern Painters, Vol. IV., No. 589 25 

Modern Painters, Vol. V., No. 608 25 

Molly Bawn, No. 76 20 

Monarch of Mincing Lane, No. 232.... 20 

Monastery, by Scotr, No. 609 20 

Money, by Lord Lytton, No. 128 10 

Monica, by The Duchess, No. 86 10 

Monikins, The, by Cooper, No. 543 20 

Monsieur Lecoq, 2 Parts, No. 114, each. 20 
Moonshine and Marguerites, No. 132. ..10 
Moonstone, The, 2 Parts, Nos. 8 and 9, 

each .10 

Moore’s Poems, No. 487 40 

Moorish Chronicles, No. 314 10 

More Leaves from a Life in the High- 
lands, by Queen Victoria, No. 355.15 
More Words about the Bible, No. 113. .20 
Mornings iu Florence, Buskin, No. 665.15 
Mr. Pisistratus Brown, M.P., No. 218. ..10 
Mr. Scarborough’s Family, 2 Parts, No. 

133, each 15 

Mrs. Darling’s Letters, No. 260 20 

Mrs. Geoffrey, No. 90 20 

Mndfog Papers, The, etc.. No. 270 10 

Munera Pulveris, by Buskin, No. 627... 15 
Murders in the Bue Morgue, by Poe, No. 

447 16 

Mysterious Island, 3 Pts., No. 185, ea.,.15 

Mystery of Orcival, No. 155 20 

Mystery of Edwin Drood, No. 297 20 

Mystic London, by Davies, No. 452 20 

My Lady’s Money, Wilkie Collins, No. 

686 10 

My Novel, 3 Parts, No. 271, each 20 

My Boses, by L. V. French, No. 485 20 

Nabob, The, by A. Daudet, No. 615 25 

Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, No. 426. .15 

Nautz Family, No. 191 20 

New Abelard, The, No. 318 20 

Newcomes, The, 2 Parts, No. 211, each. 20 
New Magdalen, by Collins. No. 21 . ... .20 
Nicholas Nickleby, 2 Parts, No. 231, 

each ; 20 

Night and Morning, 2 Parts, No. 84, 

each 15 

Nimport, No. 100, 2 Parts, each 15 

Noctes Ambrosianae, by C. North, No. 

439 30 

No New Thing, No. 108 20 

No Thoroughfare, No. 302 10 

No. 99, by Arthur Griffiths, No. 706. . . .10 
Novels by Eminent Hands, No, 600 10 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY. 


Oak Openings, by Cooper, No. 562. ... .20 
Off-Hand Sketches, by Arthur, No. 582.15 
Old Curiosity Shop, 2 Parts, No. 144, 

each, 15 

Old Lady Mary, by Oliphant, No. 368.. 10 

Old Mortality, by Scott, No. 641 20 

Old Middle ton’s Money, by Hay, No. 

590 20 

Oliver Goldsmith, by Black, No. 225.... 10 

Oliver’s Bride, by Oliphant, No. 602 10 

Oliver Twist, by Dickens, No. 10 20 

One False, Both Fair, No. 269 20 

Other People’s Money, No. 120 20 

“ Our Fathers Have Told Us,” Ruskin, 

No. 679 15 

Our Mutual Friend, 2 Parts, No. 228, 

each 20 

Outre- Mer, by Longfellow, No. 2 20 

Over the Summer Sea, No. 414 20 

Papa’s Own Girl, by Marie Howland, No. 

534 30 

Paradise Lost, by Milton, No. 389 20 

Paris Sketches, No. 229 15 

Parisians, The, 2 Parts, No. 259, each. 20 

Partisan, The, by Simms, No. 640 30 

Past and Present, No. 494 20 

Pathfinder, The, by Cooper, No. 365.... 20 

Paul and Virginia, No. 37 10 

Paul Clifford, by Lytton, No. 117 20 

Paul Vargas, by Conway, No. 617 10 

Pausanias, by Lytton, No. 317 15 

Pearl of the Andes, by Aimard, No. 

573 10 

Pearls of the Faith, No. 455 15 

Pelham, by Lord Lytton, No. 176 20 

Pendennis, 2 Parts, No. 193, each 20 

Peter the Whaler, No. 254 20 

Peveril of the Peak, by Scott, No. 509. .30 

Phantom Fortune, No. 214 .20 

Phyllis, by The Duchess, No. 78 20 

Picciola, by Saintine, No. 710 10 

Pickwick Papers, 2 Parts, No. 91, each.20 

Pictures from Italy, No. 234 15 

Pike County Folks, by Mott, No. 139. . .20 

Pilgrims of the Rhine, No. 294 15 

Pilgrim’s Progress, The, No. 200 .20 

Pillone, by W. Bergsoe, No. 77 15 

Pilot, by J. Fenimore Cooper, No. 501. .20 

Pioneer, by J. F. Cooper, No. 471 25 

Pirate, by Sir Walter Scott, No. 615 20 

Pleasures of England, No. 639 10 

Plutarch’s Lives, 5 Parts, No. 265, each.20 

Poe’s Poems, No. 403 20 

Pole on Whist, No. 406 15 

Pope’s Poems, No. 457 30 

Portia, by The Duchess, No. 58 20 

Portraits of John Knox, No. 561 15 

Prairie, by J. F. Cooper, No. 467 20 

Precaution, by Cooper, No. 601 20 

Princess Napraxine, by Ouida, No. 387.25 
Principles and Fallacies of Socialism, 

No. 533 15 

Privateersman, The, No. 212 20 

Procter’s Poems, No. 339 20 

Progress and Poverty, No. 52 20 

Promise of Marriage, No. 161 10 

Proserpina, by Ruskin, No. 682 15 

Queen of the Air, by Ruskin, No. 516 . .17 

Queen of the County, No. 72 20 

Quentin Durward, by Scott, No. 575. . . 20 
Quisisana, by F. Speilhagen, No. 449.. 20 
Random Shots, by Max Adeler, No, 295,20 


Rasselas, by Dr. Johnson, No. 44. ... ,.10 

Red Eric, The, No. 21 5 20 

Redgauntlet, by Scott, No. 544 25 

Redskins, by Cooper, No. 603 20 

Red Rover, by J. F. Cooper, No. 491 . .. 29 

Repented at Leisure, No. 423 20 

Reprinted Pieces, No. 298 20 

Richard Hurdis, by Simms, No. 687 30 

Richelieu, by Lord Lytton, No. 152 10 

Rienzi, 2 Parts, No. 160, each 15 

Rifle and Hound in Ceylon, No. 227 20 

Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible, 

No. 83 20 

Rival Doctors, by La Pointe, No. 445. . . 2C 

Robin, by Mrs. Parr, No. 42 20 

Robinson Crusoe, by Defoe, No. 428 25 

Rob Roy, by Scott, No. 632 20 

Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid, by 

T. Hardy, No. 157 10 

Romola, 2 Parts, No. 79, each 15 

Rose and the Ring, The, No. 320 10 

Rossmoyne, by The Duchess, No. 284.. 20 

Roundabout Papers, No. 283 20 

Round the World, No. 324 20 

Salmagundi, by Irving, No. 290 20 

Salt Water, No. 337 20 

Samuel Brohl & Co., No. 242 20 

Sartor Resartus, by Carlyle, No. 508... ,2U 

Satanstoe, by Cooper, No. 570 20 

Schiller’s Poems, No. 341 20 

Science at Home, by Nichols, No. 375. .20 

Science in Short Chapters, No. 80 20 

Scottish Chiefs, 2 Parts, by Jane Porter, 

No. 189, each 20 

Scott’s Poetical Works, No. 536 30 

Scout, The, by Simms, No. 671 30 

Sea Lions, The, by Cooper, No. 553 20 

Second Thoughts, No. 23 20 

Secret Despatch, The, No. 49 20 

Seed-Time and Harvest, No. 563 15 

Seekers After God, No. 19 20 

Self-Help, by Samuel Smiles, No. 425.. 25 

Self or Bearer, Besant, No. 699 10 

Selma, by Mrs. Smith, No. 65 15 

Sergeant’s Legacy, The, No. 366 20 

Sesame and Lilies, by Ruskin, No. 497.10 
Seven Lamps of Architecture, No. 521. .20 

Shadow of a Sin, by Clay, No. 691 10 

Shandon Bells, by Black, No. 85 20 

Shelley, Complete Works of, No. 549. ..30 

Sidonie, by A. Daudet, No. 604 20 

Signs of the Times, by Carlyle, No. 546.19 

Silas Marner, by G. Eliot, No. 71 10 

Singleheart and Doubleface, No. 28 10 

Sir Tom, by Mrs. Oliphant, No. 175 20 

Sketch-Book, The, No. 147 20 

Sketches and Travels in London, No. 

309 10 

Sketches by Boz, No. 273 20 

Sketches of Young Couples, No. 246. . . .10 
Slings and Arrows, Hugh Conway, No. 

672 10 

Socialism, No. 461 10 

Social Etiquette, No. 27 15 

Social Problems, by George, No. 393... 20 

Sowers not Reapers, No. 395 15 

Somebody’s Luggage, etc., No. 288 10 

Southward Ho ! by Simms, No. 662 30 

Spanish Gypsy, and others, No. 205 20 

Spanish Nun, The, No. 20 10 

Spanish Voyage, by Irving, No. 301.... 28 
Spoopendyke Papers, The, Nq, 109 20 


LOVELL'S LIBRARY. 


Spy, The, by Cooper, No. 53 .20 

St. Mark’s Rest, Ruskin, No. 668 15 

Stones of Venice, 3 Vols., No. 542, ea. . .25 
Stories for Parents, by Arthur, No. 554.15 
Stories for Young Housekeepers, by 

Arthur No. 574 15 

Story of a Sculpture, Hugh Conway, 

No. 607 10 

Story of Chinese Cordon, The, No. 371.20 

Story of Ida, The, No. 177 10 

Strange Adventures of a Phaeton, by 

William Black, No. 142 20 

St. Ronan’s Well, by Scott, No. 586 20 

Studies in Civil Service, No. 535 15 

Swinburne’s Poems, No. 412 20 

Sunrise, by Black, 2 Parts, No. 153, 

each 15 

Sunshine and Roses, by Clay, No. 458. .20 
Surgeon’s Daughter, by Scott, No. 495.. 10 

Swiss Family Robinson, No. 385 20 

Taine’s English Literature, No. 442 40 

Tale of Two Cities, No. 38 20 

Tales of a Traveller, No. 198 20 

Tales of the French Revolution, by Mar- 

tineau, No. 353 15 

Tales of Two Idle Apprentices, No.437.15 

Talisman, The, by Scott, No. 581 20 

Tartarin of Tarascon, No. 478 20 

Tempest Tossed, 2 Parts, No. 94, each. .20 
Tennyson’s Complete Poems, No. 446.. 40 
Thaddeus of Warsaw, by Jane Porter, 

No. 382 25 

That Beautiful Wretch, No. 182 20 

The Ghost’s Touch, by Wilkie Collins, 

No. 683 10 

The Gilded Clique, No. 138 20 

The Lerouge Case, No. 116 20 

The Little Good-for-Nothing, No. 615.. 20 

Theophrastxxs Such, No. 202 10 

Theory of Whist, by Pole, No. 406 15 

The Two Duchesses, No. 60 20 

They were Married, No. 18 10 

Thicker than Water, No. 187 20 

Three Feathers, The, No. 213 20 

Three Spaniards, The, No. 13 20 

Through the Looking-Glass, No. 481. . .20 

Time and Tide, Ruskin, No. 650 15 

Tinted Venus, by Anstey, No. 616 15 

Tom Brown at Oxford, by Thomas 
Hughes, 2 Parts, No. 186, each.. 15 

Tom Brown’s School-Days, No. 61 20 

Tom Cringle’s Log, No. 171 SO 

Tour of the World in Eighty Days, by 

Jules Verne, No. 154 20 

Tower of Percemont, No. 135 20 

Trail-Hunter, The, by Aimard, No. 567.10 
Tricks of the Greeks Unveiled, No. 14. .20 
Tried and Tempted, by Arthur, No. 

585 15 

Tritons, 2 Parts, No. 102, each 15 

Twice-Told Tales, No. 370 20 

Two Admirals, by Cooper, No. 484 20 

Two on a Tower, by Hardy, No. 43 ... .20 

Two Paths, by Ruskin, No. 642 20 

Two Wires, b 7 T, S. Arthur, No. 507, .15 


Two Years Before the Mast, No. 464. . .26 

Typhaines Abbey, No. 434 25 

Uncommercial Traveller, No. 282 20 

Underground Russia, No. 173 20 

Under Two Flags, 2 Pts., No. 127, ea...20 

Under the Red Flag, No. 266 10 

Under the Will, by Mary Cecil Hay, No. 

466 ....10 

Undine, by Baron de la Motte Fouque, 


Unto this Last, by Ruskin, No. 623 10 

Val d’Arno, by Ruskin, No. 685 15 

Valerie’s Fate, No. 349 ..10 

Vanity Fair, No. 172 30 

Vasconselos, by Simms, No. 677 . 30 

Vendetta, The, by Balzac, No. 63 20 

Vic, by A. Benrimo, No. 470 15 

Vicar of Wakefield, No. 51 10 

Vice Versa,, by Anstej% No. 30 20 

Virgil, Works of. No. 540. 25 

Virginians, The, 2 Parts, No. 238, 

each 20 

Voltaire and Novalis, No. 528 15 

Wanda. 2 Parts, No. 112, each 15 

Water Witch, by Cooper, No. 488 20 


Ways of Providence, by Arthur, No. 538.15 
Ways of the Hour, by Cooper, No. 581.20 
Wedded and Parted. B.M. Clay, No.695.10 

Wept of Wish-ton- Wish, No. 529 20 

What Will He Do With It ? by Lytton, 

2 Parts, No. 245, each 20 

When the Ship Comes Home, No. 268.10 

Whist, or Bumblepuppy ? No. 181 10 

White Heather, by Wm. Black, No. 67.820 

White Wings, by Black, No. 146 20 

Whittier’s Poems, No. 450 20 

Widow Bedott Papers, No. 194. 20 

Wigwam and Cabin, by Simms, No. 674.30 

Willis’ Poems, No. 352 20 

Willy Reilly, by Carleton, No. 190 20 

Wing and Wing, by Cooper, No. 506 20 

Winifred Power, No. 315 20 

Wise Women of Inverness, No. 584 10 

Wizard’s Son, The, No. 326 25 

Wolfert’s Roost and Miscellanies, No. 

321 10 

Woman, by August Bebel, No. 712 30 

Woman against Woman. by Mrs.Holmes, 

No. 709 ' 20 

Woman’s Place To-Day, No. 105 20 

Woman’s Trials, by Arthur, No. 506 20 

Woodcraft, by Simms, No. 684 30 

Woodstock, by Sir Walter Scott, No. 551.20 
Wooing O’t, The, 2 Parts, No. 62, each.15 
Words for the Wise, by Arthur, No. 568.15 

Wrecks in the Sea of Life, No. 433 20 

Wyandotte, by Cooper, No. 512 20 

Yellowplush Papers, No. 307 10 

Yemassee, The, by Simms, No. 653 30 

Yolande, by Wm. Black, No. 136 20 

Young Foresters, The, No. 335 20 

Zanoni, by Lytton. No. 81 20 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, No. 166.20 
800 Leagues on the Amazon, No. 34 . . . .10 


6 


THE SUCCESS OF THE SEASON! 


CALLED BACK. 

A NOVEL 

By HUGH CONWAY. 


This is a work in which there is a great 
deal of care displayed, by the author, in its 
construction, and, judging by the appreciation 
shown, his efforts have been amply rewarded. 
The incidents of the story, as related in the 
book, are thoroughly bright and concise, and 
the fortunes of the hero are followed by the 
reader, step by step, with an eagerness not 
easily concealed. 

Price 15 cents, 


PUBLISHED BY 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

14 & 10 Vesey Street , New York. 

1 


— — 

“ The brightest and gayest bit of Romance since On* 
Summer. — Syracuse Standard. 

A FAIR DEVICE. 

By "WOLCOTT BALESTIER, 

Author of the powerful story “A Victorious Defeat,” now running a 
successful course in Tid-Bits, and of “ A Potent Philter,” gen- 
erally remembered as one of the cleverest recent 
American serials published in the New 
YorTc Tribune. 


The Critic : — “ We are glad to have read it for one delicious scene 
quite worthy of Howell’s. ” 

Says a competent critic : 

“ A more delightful novelette than this may appear this summer, 
but we doubt it. It has several merits, not the least of which is 
its originality. There are, practically, only three characters in the 
story, and they prove abundant for the interest. While the reader, 
who cares more for the plot and its development than anything 
else, may be thoroughly entertained in the perusal, those who keep 
the author in mind must be surprised at the prolific imaginative 
resources that supply him with charming metaphors, similes, and 
comparisons, entirely out of the ordinary, and so gracefully set 
down in good rhetoric as to make almost every page a treasure trove 
in itself. These gems brighten up the story most wonderfully, 
though it is never dull or commonplace.” 

Rochester Herald : — ‘ { Entirely worthy of an honorable place among 
the productions of contemporary American novelists and affords as- 
surance of greater stories from the same pen. ” 


Lovell’s Library, Paper, 20 cts. ; cloth, 35 cts. 

Free by mail on receipt of price. 


JOHN I. LOVELL COMPANY, 14 & 16 Yesey Street, New York. 


Labor Library, 

PUBLISHED BY THE 

LABOR NEWS AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 

7 05 Broadway, New Yortc. 

Jfo. 2 Contains : 

WOMAN 

IN THE 

Past, Present and Future, 

By AUGUST BEBEL. 

Translated from the German by Dr. H. B. Adams Walter. 

# 

272 Pages. Price , Cloth, 75 cents ; Paper , 30 centiGa 

The Highest Authority on Political Economy. 

First English translation of 

“CAPITAL.” 

A CRITICISM ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

By CARL MARX. 

Published in 27 parts at 10 cents each . Subscription price /M 
the whole work , $2.50. 

Address, 


LABOR NEWS AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

705 Broadway, New Y< 



By thine own soul’s law, learn to lire ; 

And if men thwart thee, take no heed. 

And if men hate thee, have no care— 

Sing thou thy song, and do thy deed ; 

Hope thou thy hope, and pray thy prayer. 

And claim no crown they will not give. 

John G. Whittier 

♦ 

JUST PUBLISHED. 

INTEGRAL CO-OPERATION 

By ALBERT K. OWEN. 

A book (200 pages, 12mo) containing three plans illustrating sections and 
buildings suggested for “Pacific Colony Site,” and two maps showing 
Topolobampo Bay, Sinaloa, Mexico, including “Mochis Ranch,” the valley of 
the Rio Fuerte and its vicinage. 

Price, 30 cents. Sent, postage free, by John W. Lovell Co^Kss. 
14 and 16 Vesey Street, New York City. 


Also, a Weekly Paper, 



Edited by MARIE and EDWARD HOWLAND, 


Hammonton, New Jersey. 

Annual Subscription , $1 j six months, oOc.j three months , 25o. 

This paper (16-page pamphlet) is devoted exclusively to the propaganda 
for the practical application of integral-co-operation. 

While being an uncompromising exponent of Socialism, the Credit 
Foncier urges constructive measures and counsels against destructive 
methods. Its Colonists are to be known as “ constructiov.ists ” and “ individ- 
ualists ” in contradestinction to a branch ol socialists who favor destruction 
and communism. 

The Credit Foncier presents a matured plan, with details, for farm, 
city, factory, and clearing house ; and invites the farmer, manufacturer, 
artizan, engineer, architect, contractor, and accountant to unite and organize 
to build for themselves homes, in keeping with solidity, art, and sanitation. 

It asks for evolution and not for revolution ; for inter-dependence and not 
for independence : for co-operation and not for competition ; for equity and 
not for equality ; for duty and not for liberty ; for employment and not for 
charity ; for eclecticism and not for dogma ; for one law and not for class 
legislation ; for corporate management and not for political control ; for State 
tesponsibility for every person, at all times and in every place, and not for 
"Junlcipal irresponsibility for any person, at any time or in any place ; and 
, At demands that the common interests of the citizen— the atmosphere, land, [ 
water, light, power, exchange, transportation, construction, sanitation, edu- 
cation, entertainment, insurance, production, distribution, etc., etc-— “he 
pooled,” and that the private life of the citizen be held sacred. 


LOVELL’S LIBRARY. 


LATEST 

612 Carristons Gift, by Hugh Conway. 10 
Il3 Jack, by A. Daudet 20 

614 At a High Price, by E. Werner. . . 20 

615 The Little Good-for-Nothing 20 

616 The Tinted Venus, by Anstey .... .15 

617 Paul Vargas, by Hugh Conway 10 

618 Dick’s Sweetheart, by The Duchess. 20 

619 Frederick the Great, Vol. V 20 

620 Guv Mannering, by Scott 20 

621 A Maiden All Forlorn, by Duchess. 10 

622 Frederick the Great, Vol. VI 20 

623 Unto this Last, by Ruskin 10 

624 A Passive Crime, by The Duchess . . 10 

625 Kenilworth, by Scott .25 

626 Frederick the Great, Vol. VII .20 

627 Munera Pulveris, by Ruskin 15 

628 Frederick the Great, Vol. VIII.... 20 

629 The Antiquary, by Scott 20 

630 John Sterling, by Carlyle 20 

631 A Family Affair, by Hugh Conway. 20 

632 Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott 20 

633 Latter-Day Pamphlets, Carlyle. .. .20 

634 Uncle Jack, by Walter Besant 15 

635 The Betrothed, by Sir Walter Scott.20 

636 Life of Schiller, by Thomas Carlyle 20 

637 “A Joy for Ever,” by John Ruskin. 15 

638 Fair Maid of Perth, by Scott 20 

639 Pleasures of England, by Ruskin. 10 

640 The Partisan, by Simms 30 

641 Old Mortality, by Sir Walter Scott.20 

642 The Two Paths, by John Ruskin .20 

643 Oliver Cromwell, Vol. I., Carlyle.. 25 

644 Lectures on Art, Ruskin 15 

645 The Nabob, by Alphonse Daudet.. 25 

646 Oliver Cromwell, Vol. II., Carlyle. 25 

647 Aratra Pentelici, by Ruskin 15 

648 Mellichampe, by Simms 30 

649 Oliver Cromwell, Vol. III., by Car- 

lyle 25 

650 Time and Tide, by Ruskin 15 

651 At War with Herself, by B. M. Clay. 15 

652 Characteristics, by Carlyle 15 

653 The Yemassee, by W. G. Simms. . .30 

654 Love’s Harvest, by B. L. Farjeon.20 

655 Integral Co-operation, by A. K. 

Owen 30 

656 Corn Law Rhymes, by Carlyle 15 

657 Katherine Walton, by W. G.Simms.30 

658 Baillie the Covenanter, by Carlyle. 15 

659 The Luck of the Darrells, by Payn.20 

660 For Lilias, by Rosa N. Carey 20 

661 Dr. Francia, by Carlyle 15 

662 Southward Ho ! by W. G. Simms.. 30 

663 The Flower of Doom, by M. B. Ed- 

wards 10 

664 At Bay, 'by Mrs. Alexander 10 

665 Mornings in Florence, by Ruskin.. 15 

666 Barbara’s Rival, by Ernest Young. 20 

667 Story of a Sculptor, by Conway.. .lQ 

668 St. Mark's Rest, bv John Ruskin. .15 

669 Hilda, by Bertha M Clay lo 

670 Deucalion, by Ruskin I5 

671 The Scout, by Simms 30 

672 Slings and Arrows, by Con way.... 1 q 


ISSUES. 


673 Art of England, by Ruskin 15 

674 The Wigwam and Cabin, by Simms.30 

675 A Rainy June, by Ouida 10 

676 Eagle’s Nest, by Ruskin 15 

677 Vasconselos, by Simms 30 

678 White Heather, by Black . . 20 

679 Our Fathers have ToldUs,byRuskin.l5 

680 Confession, by Simms 30 

681 A Girton Girl, by Mrs. Edwards.. .20 

682 Proserpina, by Ruskin 15 

683 The Ghost’s Touch, by Collins 10 

684 Woodcraft, by Simms 30 

685 Val d 1 Arno, by Ruskin 15 

686 My Lady’s Money, by Collins 10 

687 Richard Hurdis, by Simms 30 

688 Love’s Meinie, by Ruskin 15 

689 Her Martyrdom, by B. M. Clay. . .20 

690 Guy Rivers, by Simms 30 

691 A Woman’s Honor, by Young. ... .20 


692 Lord Lynne’s Choice, B. M. Clay.. 10 

693 Border Beagles, by W. G. Simms.. 30 

694 The Shadow of a Sin, B. M. Clay.. 10 

695 Wedded and Parted, by B. M. Clay.10 

696 The Master of the Mine, Buchanan. 10 

697 The Forayers, by Simms 30 

698 The Mistletoe Bough, M.E.Braddon. 20 

699 Self or Bearer, Walter Besant. ...10 

700 In Cupid’s Net, by B. M. Clay 10 

701 Lady Darner’s Secret, B. M. Clay.. 20 

702 Charlemont, by W. G. Simms 30 

703 Eutaw, by W. G. Simms SO 

704 Evolution, Rev. C. F. Deems, D.D.20 

705 Beauchampe, by W. G. Simms.... 30 

706 No. 99, by Arthur Griffiths 10 

707 Fors Clavigera, by Ruskin. P’t I. 30 

708 Fors Clavigera, by Ruskin. P’t II. .30 

709 Woman against Woman, by Holmes. 20 

710 Picciola, by J. X. B. Saintine 10 

711 Undine, by Baron de la Motte 

Fouque 10 

712 Woman, by August Bebel 30 

713 Fors Clavigera, by Ruskin. P’t III. 30 

714 Fors Clavigera, by Rmkin. P’t IV.80 

715 A Cardinal Sin, by Hugh Con way. 20 

716 A Crimson Stain, Annie Bradshaw. 20 

717 ACountryGentleman,Mrs.Oliphant.20 

718 A Gilded Sin, by B. M. Clay 10 

719 Rory O’More, by Samuel Lover.. . .20 

720 Between Two Loves, B. M. Clay. . .20 

721 Lady Branksmere, by The Duchess. 20 

722 The Evil Genius, by Wilkie Collins.20 

723 Running the Gauntlet, by Yates. . .20 

724 Broken to Harness, Edmund Yates.20 

725 Dr. Wilmer’s Love, Margaret Lee.. 25 

726 Austin Eliot, by Henry Kingsley.. 20 

727 For Another’s Sin, by B. M. Clay.. 20 

728 The Hdlyars and Burtons, Kingsley 20 

729 In Prison and Out, by Stretton 20 

730 Romance of a Young Girl, by Clay. 20 

731 Leighton Court, by Kingsley 20 

732 Victory Deane, by Cecil Griffith. 20 
738 A Queen amongst Women, by Clay.10 

734 Vineta, by E. Werner 20 

735 A Mental Struggle, The Duchess.. 20 


1 


Any of the above can be obtained from all booksellers and newsdealers, or will be 
cent free by mail, on receipt of price, by the publishers. 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

Nos. 14 and 16 Vesey Street, New York. 


Tid-Bits or bonnebouches chosen from the wisest and wit » 
tiest words that find their way into print about all 
the topics that mahe the world interesting . 


THE CHEAPEST WEEKLY PUBLISHED. 


TID-BITS 

ILLUSTRATED. 

Offering, at the extremely low price of 

THREE CENTS 

Sixteen Pages filled with the sifted goodness and richness of 
the current periodicals and newspapers. 

It Never Prints a Dull Line! 

Sixteen Pages filled with original matter written for 
Tid-Bits by the best writers. Tid-Bits touches the life of our 
times on every side, and is an “ abstract and brief chronicle ” 
of current thought — grave and gay. 

HUMOROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. — Tid-Bits' car- 
toons are the work of the cleverest caricaturists. They are 
graphic and pointed. 

PRIZES. — A prize of $10 is offered weekly for the best 
short story — not necessarily original — submitted to the editor, 
and prizes for answers to questions of various sorts are als^ 
offered from time to time. 

If there is anything new worth knowing you will find it i 
Tid-Bits. 

If there is anything new worth laughing at you will fir 
it in Tid-Bits. 

So much intelligence, liveliness, and humor cannot be 
had for 3 cents in any other form. 

A sample copy will be sent free of postage to anyone 
addressing the publishers. Subscription, $1.50 a year. 

JOHN W. LOVELL CO., 14 Vesey Street, New York. 


3S 


THE CELEBRATED 



Grand, Square and Upright 



PIANOFORTES 

ARE PREFERRED BY THE LEADING ARTISTS. 

The demands now made by an educated musical public are so exacting that very few 
Pianoforte Manufacturers can produce Instruments that will stand the test which merit 
requires. SOHMER & CO., as Manufacturers, rank amongst these chosen few, who are 
acknowledged to be makers of standard instruments. In these days, when Manufacturers 
urge the low price of their wares rather than their superior quality as an inducement to 
purchase, it may not be amiss to suggest that, in a Piano, quality and price are too in- 
separably joined to expect the one without the other. 

Every Piano ought to be judged as to the quality of its tone, its touch, and its work- 
manship ; if any one of these is wanting in excellence, however good the others may be, 
the instrument will be imperfect. It is the combination of these qualities in the highest 
degree that constitutes the perfect Piano, and it is this combination that has given the 
“ SOHMER ” its honorable position with the trade and the public. 

Received First Prize Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. 
Received First Prize at Exhibition, Montreal, Canada, 1881 and 1882. 


SOHMER & CO., Manufacturers, 

149-155 E. 14th St., New York. 



# IfT MEADE 

GenCo 1 1 




00015733015 


